Color seperationg what?

[Spunky Nerd]

I dont know too much about printing (only enought to manage to be dedcent at printing to a big @ss roland, or stardard xerox) but could someone explain to me "Must have working knowledge of color manipulation & color separation"

As far as printing I am self taught by being a GD and watching the printing people, and then eventually doing my own printing, so I might know what this is, just not techinical terminology...

[Virgo Nightingale]

Color separation refers to the different color plates a piece needs to print. In full color printing, you have 4 plates: cyan, magenta, yellow and black. If you're using spot colors, you have a plate for each spot color.

[morea]

If you're using spot colors, you have a plate for each spot color.

or sometimes two, if you have a lot of coverage and no lockup! :D

[Spunky Nerd]

so how would you go about that?

[Virgo Nightingale]

Lockup? Who said anything about jail? ;)

[Virgo Nightingale]

There's usually an option in the print dialog box that will allow you to print separations. But there are things to consider like knockout and overprinting. All depending on the piece, of course.

[Spunky Nerd]

im lost... this is like a foreign language to me

[Spunky Nerd]

when send to print in options would that come up? what about if you are using a rip engine like versa works (thats what I have my experience on)

[Virgo Nightingale]

In Quark, the option is under the Layout tab; in InDesign I believe it's in the Output tab.

Try searching on Google, you will find TONS of info on color separations.

[morea]

If I could offer you one piece of advice - don't apply for a job claiming to know something that you really don't know. You're not going to learn this in a matter of a few minutes of posting on a message board. You could probably get a grip on the basic concept, but when it comes time to troubleshoot problems and whatnot, your lack of experience will become evident. Making "misleading" claims during the hiring process can get you canned if the employer finds out.

A better approach might be to tell the interviewer that it is something that you don't have experience with, but that you are willing to learn. Employers often consider job applicants who have 80% of the skills that they request in their job postings, so it is probably a good idea to admit what you DON'T know and then play up your strengths.

[Virgo Nightingale]

I absolutely agree with Morea on this one. You won't learn what you need to know overnight.

However, you should still try your best to learn about this aspect of GD and printing. It's important. You may not be able to apply what you learn right away, but the knowledge will come in handy at some point.

[Spunky Nerd]

Oh no, Mo, I wasn't going to claim I knew how to do it or what it was... I jsut want to know what it was, like I said, I am self taught with a lot of my prepress and was thinking I might know how to do it, but didn't know the name! Thanks though... and yeah I am always eager to learn new things and I am very adament about letting employers know that (beign the resaon why you guys can't get rid of me on here, too many questions I have yet to ask)

[morea]

a site that you might find helpful if you are interested in prepress is:

www.prepressure.com :)

[Drazan]

Color management and seperation.

One of the things you should start researching is calls "color gamut" if you google it there's some articles right off that will explain things in depth. Basically it's the limitation of electronic and print devices' perception of color which is far less than what our eyes can see.

If you don't know how to work within gamut of your printing specs then you will have very unexpected results. Tans may turn pink or green, reds may turn brown, and what you see on your screen is not what will be printed.

Learning how to design by number values of the colors is key to color management.

Seperation of color is how you set up the file for print. This is not the 4 color process digital printing of the Roland or Xerox machines. This is refering to set up a file for offset printing. Offset uses different plates for each color. For example CMYK each would get one plate for each color. Sometimes there's a 5th plate for text or other such specific spot color.

Google "print color seperation" for articles on color seperation.

Designing with color management in mind really is based on knowlege and experience. I am the go to person for color theory at work. I make difficult colors print corectly on our workflow. I've 14 years of experience working with design and another plus 10 years in traditional mediums. And I still run into some problematic colors that take an hour or two of experimentation to hit right. A real big deal for corporate branding.

You may also want to search out Pantone, Spot colors, Gamut, color seperation, color values, RGB vs CMYK, color calibration, color theory, color wheel, offset printing, offset press, offset plates, and digital vs offset.

Another nifty site to gain knowlege about color and relations, as well as experimenting with pallets is:
http://kuler.adobe.com

Jade