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How to Create Your Own Color Separations in Adobe Illustrator

on Oct 17th 2008 with 41 comments
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After you create vector artwork for t-shirt printing, there is one more major step the printer has to perform before printing. This additional step is something that everyone has heard of, but very few have tried. It is called color separations. It’s crucial that you learn how to color separate before your artwork is compromised. Let’s learn how!

The Final Image Previews

Below are images from the final color seperated PDF we will be working towards. The output PDF and source files are available to PLUS members. Want access to the full Vector Source files and downloadable copies of every tutorial, including this one? Join VECTORTUTS PLUS for just $19/month.

Step 1

The graphics used in this tutorial are from freely available dingbat fonts. One is called SkullZ and the other is 2nd Amendment. The first thing we’re going to do is begin with a three color vectored design in Adobe Illustrator.

Step 2

If you are used to designing in RGB or CMYK, it is best to convert all of your colors to the spot PMS colors that the printer will use. Make sure all of the instances of a single color are selected when converting to a PMS color.

Step 3

When using the color white in your artwork, it is best practice to create a new color swatch for a Spot White. You can create a new swatch by clicking on the small button next to the Trash Icon in the Swatch Palette.

Step 4

Make sure you name the new color something relevant to the ink color so it is easy to identify when looking at the final separations. It is also very important to change the color type from a process color to a spot color. The color mode does not matter.

Step 5

Now that all your colors have been converted to spot PMS colors, it is time to print the separations. Go to File > Print to access the Print menu. Change the printer to Adobe PDF and set the media size to custom.

Step 6

Add an additional 100 pixels to the width and height of the media size to allow room for the printer marks.

Step 7

Next, choose the Marks and Bleed option from the left side menu. Check the box for All Printer’s Marks so the separations can be labeled and registered.

Step 8

Now select Output from the left side menu and change the output mode to separations. Make sure in the Document Ink Options that the printer icons are only located next to the three spot colors we need printed.

Step 9

Select Print and you will be prompted to save the new color separated PDF file.

Final Image

The magic is over! Each page within the PDF is an individual spot color that is labeled and registered for print. You can line the artwork up and make sure all the pieces of the puzzle are there. Now you can save yourself some anguish and the printer some time on your next t-shirt project.

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By

Rollover to read this author's bio or click through to see a full list of posts by this author.

I am a t-shirt designer and printer at You Design It. We work with user submitted artwork every day and think an informed designer is the best kind. Our goal is to educate graphic designers on how to get their artwork to become the very best t-shirt print possible.  

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  • http://designshard.com Max | Design Shard

    Thats awesome information, thanks for sharing and great little tut.

  • http://blog.youdesignit.com Blake
    Author

    Thanks Max, glad you liked it.

  • JD

    Definitely some great stuff for freelance designers who want that professional look when sending designs of multiple colors to clients.

  • http://www.1pixelbrush.com Dan

    Nice, great stuff to know. Thanks for the info.

  • http://www.mrkuzio.com Mr Kuzio

    This tut is a basic tip.

    Take a tour on my blog and (if you speak italian) get some tip for the print workflow. ;)

  • http://www.1stwebdesigner.com Dainis Graveris

    Huh…thanks..for share..:) Maybe simple, but didn’t know this one :)

  • http://www.conradgorny.com Conrad Gorny

    This is really handy information. Thanks,

    Conrad Gorny
    http://www.conradgorny.com

  • http://nfparadise.com Preston Lewis

    I’m running CS3 and don’t see an option for print to pdf… what should I do?

  • http://mokshasolutions.com Moksha

    thanks,

  • http://www.adrenalynemedia.com Chris C.

    Nice tutorial. This is something I use at least 3-4 times daily, but it’s also something I had to learn on my own, by trial and error.
    Any chance you could make an additional tutorial similar to this one, except for halftone output (if it’s even possible with Illustrator)?

  • Stewart Knapman

    This is a nice tip,

    Young players should also be aware that some printers may have their own personal preferences when It comes to things like trapping (How much one colour will under-print or over-print on another colour).
    A lot of the time it will depend on the design its self and/or the effect that you want to achieve.

    So the best colour separation tool you could ever have is communication with your printer.

    I am a professional colour separator by day (Its not nearly as glamorous as it sounds), and its great to see a well made file.
    It just makes my day run a lot more smoothly, and will ensure that you get the best print that you can.

    Thanks.

  • http://www.levil.be levi

    in fact,
    this can EASILY been done with the Phantasm CS plugin.

    The trial version lets you do the seperations without limitations!
    Really good plugin for illustrator by the way!

    http://www.phantasmcs.com

    (i am not affiliated with this company)

  • Hellboy

    Very interesting!
    I think it would be very useful to have a couple of tutorials focused on the “print stuff”.
    Spot & Pantone colors, color profiles, how to export PDF files ready to print etc…
    Sometimes you can create very good stuff in Illustrator but without the right steps you won’t be able to print it in the right way.

  • Geoff

    Great topic! Handy indeed.

  • Halftime

    thank you very much

    I m never heard about pms colors can you explain more about this cc color ?

    thank you….

  • http://www.freshclickmedia.com Shane

    Interesting and enlightening :)

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  • Mike

    Anymore TUTs on seps? Ways to get halftone without a rip or postscript printer??

  • Fabio

    Mike: you should try Ghostscript+GhostView, it’s a opensource RIP (totally free), so you can use it to print halftones or process colors films.

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  • David

    In CS4, you can also preview separations within Illustrator.

  • al

    i keep getting acrobat not activated messages. what should i do?

  • chon

    Thanks..I’m used to corel draw…I only have a small printer. What if my design is big and it requires 2 papers…How can I do this with illustrator?

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  • http://felipe-olguera-jr.deviantart.com/ phil

    very nice!! helps us alot, more print tutorials for beginners like me :)

    Thanks,
    Phil

  • michelle

    ppperfect info !

  • starr whiteside

    now all we need is a tut on trapping and creating bases and highlights and tailoring your seps to different colored shirts. That’s when the fun begins!

  • dilip

    how to create PMS Color illustrator, indesign

  • http://www.outoforange.com Jay Reynolds

    THANKS! I love this site. This saved me a ton of time tonight when in a time crunch! Thanks for all the awesome information and tutorials!

  • banhbaofs

    thanx ya a lot

  • law

    What about 2 color transparent blend? Ex: transparent to red to black?

  • Tim

    Ive followed all the steps perfectly, but i do not get prompted to save my file after i hit print at the end…

    Anyone know why this might be?

  • RAUL

    thanks for it.
    that is going to help me a lot.

  • ALLERA LIANE

    I really have learn some basic info u did i pick up more info.tnks dude

  • Jason

    Hi
    Tks for the info, actually i have a problem,
    Illustrator CS5 don´t´allow me to change
    the output mode to separations and PPD
    adobe PDF printer doesn´t appear.

    What can i do?

    • http://bucketothought.com/loungekat/blog/ LoungeKat

      I haven’t heard of this problem before. Perhaps the Adobe forums can help with that. I don’t know why CS5 would be different to the previous versions?

    • Pariah

      I am in exactly the same boat!

  • nani

    when i do this process the spot colors i have created dont appear as plate options to turn on and off in my print window, only the cmyk colours do. help!!!!!

  • Chris

    My program (cs4) wouldn’t let me do the “Spot White” step and it wouldn’t let me save the PDF in separate layers. All I got was a single-layer PDF.

  • http://www.camerareadyart.com Ronak Patel

    Realy Good idea in this instuction,
    Very good example,
    this is very simply you know.

  • Solo Matai

    I am in Fiji and have been doing my screenprinting separations for over 5 years on Photoshop 7. I am now ready to go to Illustrator. Have you got any suggestions as to where I start and do you have easy to learn tutorials steps to get started.
    Solo

  • Supermomoness

    Wow, thanks so much.
    I’ve been doing all of this manually.
    Creating shapes exact in order for them to be screen-ready.
    So happy to have come across this.

    Thank you tremendously!

  • Paulik

    If you want anybody to take you seriously, do not write “seperated”. And this is a non-English native that corrects you.

  • BenOBrien

    I’ve followed this through and it does all make it easy, but when I select ‘print’ it doesn’t prompt me to save the file, it just tries to print it, not giving me any opportunity to save the file at all. Any thoughts?!?!