Layer setup in CMYK

[Bucket!]

I have a Lines Channel as well as all the layers. I suppose the Channel is superfluous? I'm at work now, I'll give that a go later.

Thanks a lot!

[JimCampbell]

Forgive me if I come across as a bit thick, but I think the use of the term trapping here differs slightly from my previous understanding, derived from many long years of slogging through print design, and I want to make sure that I have this right ...

In the more simplistic world of graphic design, it was/is quite common to create what is known as a "rich black", which was usually something like C100M100K100, or lesser values of CM on paper that was prone to ink saturation. Simple K100 was generally held to look a bit, well, shit.

Am I correct in thinking that the idea of the trap as presented in Dave's illustration on Pg1 of this thread is to simulate this idea of "rich black" whilst simultaneously creating a small margin of error for misregistration, so one doesn't end up with a white halo around the linework if the black is misregistered?

In which case, I'm assuming that the linework itself is actually just the much-maligned K100, designed to overprint on the trap colour?

Sorry if this seems blindingly bloody obvious to the rest of you, but I'm coming at this from a slightly different angle to many of you and I'm trying to wrap my brain around this!

Cheers

Jim

[Jason Lewis]

Forgive me if I come across as a bit thick, but I think the use of the term trapping here differs slightly from my previous understanding, derived from many long years of slogging through print design, and I want to make sure that I have this right ...

In the more simplistic world of graphic design, it was/is quite common to create what is known as a "rich black", which was usually something like C100M100K100, or lesser values of CM on paper that was prone to ink saturation. Simple K100 was generally held to look a bit, well, shit.

Am I correct in thinking that the idea of the trap as presented in Dave's illustration on Pg1 of this thread is to simulate this idea of "rich black" whilst simultaneously creating a small margin of error for misregistration, so one doesn't end up with a white halo around the linework if the black is misregistered?

In which case, I'm assuming that the linework itself is actually just the much-maligned K100, designed to overprint on the trap colour?

Sorry if this seems blindingly bloody obvious to the rest of you, but I'm coming at this from a slightly different angle to many of you and I'm trying to wrap my brain around this!

Cheers

Jim

You're mostly correct. Most people switch their line layer's mode to multiply or darken so the trapping color still shows through. that way the trapping color (usually c60 m40 y40) still enriches the k100 inks.

[JimCampbell]

You're mostly correct. Most people switch their line layer's mode to multiply or darken so the trapping color still shows through. that way the trapping color (usually c60 m40 y40) still enriches the k100 inks.

Brilliant ... thank you, Jason!

Cheers

Jim

[ART!]

If you're stuck working on an old computer, scale a *copy* of the page down if you must work that way. I'd go down to 300 only if absolutely necessary, because you can sometimes see pixels on really sharp edges at that resolution. 450 DPI would be much preferred. When finished with the color, scale the colored image back up to 600 and replace the garbled line art in the scaled up version with the original 600DPI aliased art. Only add any color-holds etc once you have the high res art to work from. Some people just clor at 450 DPI. It really is a high enough res. for print.
[...]
Coloring greyscale art usually involves line art that is scanned from pencils or has ink washes. It's best put on a layer set to "multiply", on top of the colored background layer. I recommend coloring "greyscale" stuff in RGB to avoid ink limit problems and ugly colors containing too much black ink when it goes to print.

Ditto that. That's how I do it, anyway.

The dislike dropping the high-res line art back in and then doing holds, because I like doing holds early on so I can see how they affect the overall image. I need to see the holds during the process, not at the end.

I think I've mentioned this earlier, but I don't mess with Channels at all. Are there effects that can only be achieved using Channels?