Check it out at the T-Biz Store HERE.

Due to the success and popular demand from FESPA Fabric 2012, enter this year’s design competition and for a chance to win over 2,000 Euros ($2,600) worth of prizes.

Get involved with FESPA Fabric by submitting your design. Deadline for entries is May 3, 2013.

Entries will then be published online for the FESPA community to vote. The 5 most popular designs will be showcased at FESPA Fabric 2013, London – June 25 – 29 where the visitors at the show will vote for the best design.

The Criteria

Your design must feature at least one of the following elements which is available in the  FESPA design competition graphics pack:

• FESPA Fabric logo
• FESPA Fabric girl image
• Fly FESPA Fabric icon

So make your design as cool, creative and funky as possible!

Read all the details, rules, and how to submit designs HERE.

Don’t forget to register for your FREE visitor badge to attend FESPA Fabric 2013 – click here and register now.

If you need separations on a regular basis the fee is only $35 per set if you buy the new pre-paid 10-pack.

To order color separations and get more details about this service go to our  shopping cart.  Click HERE.

If you are new to printing high-end images on light and dark shirts you MUST read an article on how to do this. Click here to see the article. Print it out. Post it. Follow it.

Here are a few samples of separation jobs Scott had done.

All images copyright/trademark their respective owners.

What will the next trend be? Who knows but if you look back about 30 years you will probably find it.

What has not gone away is the distressed look. This just keeps getting stronger and stronger and of course is in wide-spread use in mainstream media on everything from TV show graphics to the nightly news.

A majority of the Fespa show is all about wide format printing. But, in keeping with their screen printing roots – they have a “show within a show” called Fespa Fabric. This is where all the screen printing and digital garment printing heavyweights will have large booths. Companies like M&R, Stahls, MHM, Brother, Anajet, Vastex and many others will be out in force in London.

What makes this show so special is that it is really an event and it runs FIVE DAYS! If you want to see the movers and shakers of this industry we’ll see you in London in June.

Read more about Fespa Fabric HERE.

Don’t miss Scott Fresener’s hands-on workshops being held on June 28 and June 29 at Fespa Fabric. Read more HERE.

• T-Seps for only $425.00.
• T-Seps/T-RIP Bundle $795.00.
• Upgrade from FastFilms to T-Seps $175.00.
• Save $50 on any version of T-RIP.
• Halftone Converter for only $39.95.
• Start using T-Biz ART for only $74.95.
• Save on Bundles of Products.
• How To Print book DVD for $39.95.
• Plus discounts on DVDs and more.

Check out these specials and more at our store HERE.

Scott brings his wealth of experience to these fast paced workshops. Scott does thousands of color separations per year for clients big and small including people who print for Disney, Harley, NASCAR, Walmart and others. In this class you will learn Scott’s secrets of using Adobe Photoshop and how to take good and bad artwork and make a great set of separations for light and dark shirts with prints that will jump off the garment. Scott has taught hands-on computer classes since the early 90’s and is a master of teaching a lot of information in a short time period.

Scott will be offering two different class.

Secrets of Adobe Photoshop Workshop – June 28
4-hours   1:00pm – 5:00pm (13:00 to 17:00)

Whether you are a Photoshop beginner or even a power user – you will leave this class with a wealth of new ideas on how to get the most from the Photoshop. This hand-ons* workshop will take you through the basics of using Adobe Photoshop and then will quickly move to unlocking the secrets of Photoshop.

You will learn:

• Basic to advanced use of the main Photoshop tools.
• How to built a complex image in Layers.
• How to improve poor quality images.
• How to improve image contrast.
• Proper use of sharpening.
• How to perform miracles on low quality JPG images.
• How to design in Corel and AI to make files easier to work with in Photoshop.
• What file formats work the best.
• How to get vector quality edges in Photoshop.
• Designing with choking and trapping in mind.
  
• How to make images screen print friendly and easier to separate and print.
• All of the key shortcuts to improve workflow and productivity.
• How to use contrast and clean colors for better separations.
• How to design for light and dark shirts.
• How to use the shirt color as part of the image.
• Working with distressed images.
• Dozens and dozens of tips, tricks and magic in Photoshop.

Each student will receive a DVD work disk with class work files on it.

Master Color Separation Workshop – June 29
4-hours   1:00pm – 5:00pm (13:00 to 17:00)

This class is designed for artists or anyone needing to know the secrets of high end color separations for light and dark shirts. This is a condensed version of Scott’s popular Master Color Separator Boot Camp. The majority of this class is taught using Adobe Photoshop and attendees should have a basic grasp of using Photoshop. If you are new to Photoshop then you must take the Secrets of Photoshop class first. In this fast paced class you will learn the major points in creating vibrant color separations that are screen print friendly.

Here are just a few of the many things you will learn:

• How to do Simulated Process Color separations for light and dark shirts.
• How to do Index Color separations for light and dark shirts.
• A quick overview of doing CMYK separations for light and dark shirts.
• How to design in Corel or Adobe Illustrator for better separations.
• How to reduce the color count to accommodate your printing limitations.
• How to use gray to your advantage.
• All about choking and trapping.
  
• The secrets of a good underbase and highlight white.
  
• How to reduce the amount of black ink yet retain shadow detail.
• How to get cleaner colors with less color mixing.
• How to soft proof the image and see exactly how it will print.
• How to make the seps very screen print friendly with proper ink densities.
• How to create separations that work on all shirt colors.
• How to design and separate so your production people will love you.
• What type of separations to use on different types of artwork.
• How to make separate spot plates for special effects inks.
• How to separate for discharge and waterbased ink.
• How to determine the proper halftone frequency, dot angle, dot shape, mesh count and more.
• Proper film output.
• A quick overview of screen making, ink and printing requirements.

The images on the right are samples of the types of jobs Scott separates every day – to rave reviews from his customers. You will be working with images like these and learn how to separate them in the Master Separators Workshop.

This class is geared towards doing high-end photorealistic color separations for garment screen printing in Photoshop. Images can be created in Adobe Illustrator, Corel Draw or from a scan but the separation methods taught in this class are done in Adobe Photoshop (any version).

This class teaches you how to do separations without any third party software. But, if you own T-Seps, FastFilms or other similar automated programs that is all the better because they do the “heavy lifting” when doing separations. The key to a great set of seps is knowing how to make the artwork screen print and separation friendly and then knowing how to tweak the seps for the best and brightest print possible.

Creating great separations is just part of the process. You have to understand how your screen department can hold all those small dots on screens and you have to have printers in the shop who understand how to not “kill” the print.

Each student will receive a DVD work disk with class work files on it.

Computer Requirements
This is a hands-on class. You  must bring a laptop computer to this class. Attendees from the same company can share a computer if necessary. The computer must be battery operated. There will be limited access to power. The computer can be a Mac or PC and it must have Adobe Photoshop – any full version – on it. You will receive a work disk with class work files on it.

Class Location
Classes are held at the ExCel London Expo Center – home of Fespa London and FespaFabric. You must be a registered attendee of Fespa London in order to attend these classes. Register for Free for the Fespa and FespaFabric show here.

Class Sizes
Due to the room size, classes are limited to a maximum of 36 attendees. These classes will sell out so don’t delay in registering.

Class Fee
Each class is $199 USD (approx. €151) per person. If you attend both classes the total fee is $350 USD (approx. €267).

Class Registration and Confirmation
You will receive a confirming email invoice when you register online at the T-Biz Network STORE. You will receive an email confirmation 30 days from the class date with more details and room locations.

We’ll see you in London!

*** Sample images are copyright/trademark their respective owners.

They are teaching their popular 3-day T-Shirt Screen Printing Classes – now called T-Shirt Printers Boot Camp - made famous at the U.S. Screen Printing Institute. The Institute was founded in 1979 by Scott and Pat Fresener, and over the years 14,000 students were taught -  including most of the major printers in this industry. Scott and Mike Fresener are bringing back this popular class with major updates including the latest trends in garment printing along with all the screen printing basics. Whether you are a total beginner or have been printing for awhile, you will find this workshop a must attend.

They are also offering a new 3-Day class called the Master Color Separator Boot Camp. This class is taught by Scott Fresener. You will learn all the tricks of doing very high-end color separations.  Besides being a screen printing expert, Scott is a master color separator and he will show you how he does seps for clients who print for Disney, Harley, WalMart and more. This is a hands-on class designed for computer artists, owner/operators, or anyone wanting to learn how to do high-end colors separations for light and dark shirts.

Check out the new Printers Boot Camp website HERE.

Not a day goes by that someone doesn’t call to say they upgraded to Photoshop CS5 or CS6 and they can’t find the “Screen” button that they use to set the halftone frequency, angle, and dot shape. Adobe removed the Screen button in CS5 and CS6 and now it is much harder to make these settings.

The T-Seps Halftone Converter is a Photoshop plug-in that takes any channel separation you created in any version of Photoshop on a Mac or PC and converts those seps into individual files that are already halftoned and ready to print. (This program does not create color separations.) In fact the program works on one-color grayscale images that need to be converted to halftones, too. After running the program simply print the individual files to a software RIP like T-RIP (or any brand of RIP), print the files direct to an inkjet printer or laser printer, or save the indiviual files and print them from Corel or Illustrator.

The T-Seps Halftone Converter is not a full “RIP”. A standard software RIP (raster image processor) not only converts a file to halftones but also controls ink volumes, nesting of multiple images on one page, and printing with black ink from all the ink slots (to conserve ink). BUT, if you don’t have a RIP, then this is the next best thing. And, even if you do have a RIP, it is a real pain to change the RIP to the correct frequency, angle and dot shape for each job now that there is no longer a Screen button in CS5 or CS6. With the T-Seps Halftone Converter you are just a couple of mouse clicks away.

You can purchase the T-Seps Halftone Converter HERE.

Watch our short YouTube video and download the Instruction Manual here. When you purchase the program (which is a download or physical CDonly), you should download the Instruction Manual so you will know how to install it.

This has been a long time in coming.
Now there is an easy way to have your own website with an OnLine Designer, quick quoting, tons of clipart, simple order entry, thousands of garments styles to offer your customers, and more!

I have been working closely with DecoNetwork and the new Screen Print version of their very popular industry specific eCommerce solution for garment decorators. This is just what the industry needs. If you want a robust eCommerce solution that includes On-Line Design Software, lots of clipart, a complete shopping cart, full website, easy quoting, order management, the ability to create multiple stores – and more – then you must look at DecoNetwork!

What makes DecoNetwork different?
First – it is NOT new. It is a mature program that keeps evolving. DecoNetwork has been providing eCommerce solutions for a number of years to the Embroidery and Direct-to-Garment side of the industry. The inclusion of Screen Printing support is new and I have been working with them to make it top notch.

Second, it is VERY AFFORDABLE to have your own website with On-Line Design and complete order processing. In fact for the DecoNetwork system there is NO setup fee and low monthly cost of only $149.00* – with NO contract. You pay month-to-month. There is nothing to lose!

Why DecoNetwork?
OK, there are other guys selling similar programs but frankly, no one has the depth and features of DecoNetwork. Under the hood this program is HOT. Many other programs want a high up-front setup fee, a large monthly payment and a long term contract. With DecoNetwork you can signup and get going. You can have your store up and running in a matter of minutes (almost) and try it out. Road test it. Get addicted to it. Love it!

Check out the T-Biz Network Demo Store. It is a great sample of what you can do. With the Demo Store you can actually pick a product from the hundreds of stock garments including T-Shirts, Caps, Aprons and more – and you can design a shirt and place a test order. See what your customer sees. Better yet, from the T-Biz Demo Store you can create your own store and try out the powerful backend order processing, order tracking and more! Simply click on the Create Online Store button at the bottom of the T-Biz Demo store.

Click here to go to the T-Biz Demo Store

Check out the newly released version 5.1. Click here to see the new changes.

With the T-Biz version of DecoNetwork here is what you get:

Complete Website
Dozens of themes and easy to customize to be your own. Change the graphics, the colors, the layout and the entire look. On the right is just a sample of a stock template with slight customizations for the T-Biz Demo Site.

Click on image for a larger view or better yet simply go to the demo site here.

Your DecoNetwork store comes with thousands of industry products including all sizes, colors, descriptions, specifications and more. It just takes a few minutes to populate your site with a complete catalog of products.

Even if you have a basic website, you can link to your special DecoNetwork site in order to give your customer the ability to choose products, design on-line and use the shopping cart. You can customize your custom DecoNetwork store to look like your current site.

Click on images to enlarge. Click on lower right corner to enlarge bigger.

OnLine Designer
This is really hot! Your customer can easily create online. They can choose from all of the garment styles and the thousands of clipart images. In fact, if you signup for the T-Biz version of DecoNetwork you get the complete T-Biz ART catalog. Most of the stock art is vector based ready for you to use in Corel Draw or Illustrator. T-Biz ART is all raster based images and if you want high-end color separations for light and dark shirts you can get color separations from Scott Fresener for only $40 per job. From text effects, to arching, outlines, dozens and dozens of type faces, to the ability to email the image – the DecoNetwork On-Line Designer has it all including NEW Screen Print support.

eCommerce Package
When you signup for a DecoNetwork custom website you also get a very powerful shopping cart. It is easy for customers to select items, design on-line and then place an order. Your shopping cart has all the power features of high-end shopping carts including payment gateways, standard shipping methods, order confirmation, order tracking, the ability for your customer to check on the order on-line and much, much more.

Setup Affiliate Stores Just Like Cafe Press
With the DecoNetwork Store program you can setup hundreds of affiliate stores – FOR FREE. Do you have a corporate account who wants their own web store for employees? Do you sell to fraternities and Sororities who want to sell merchandise and make money? Is your customer having an event and needs a quick web store to sell merchandise? It is easy with DecoNetwork. You can have a new store setup in minutes. Brand it. Put stock merchandise in it. Orders come in. YOU fulfill them. You ship them – for your customer. They make money. You make money.

Offer Custom Printing and Your Own Stock Designs
With your DecoNetwork store you can offer custom printing including your choices of direct-to-garment, sublimation or screen printing and you can even offer embroidery. Plus, you can offer your own stock designs too!

Order Management
Getting the order is only part of the process. You can manage your entire company from the backend of your store. From daily stats about orders to interfacing with Quick Books for full accounting – you have it all with a DecoNetwork store.

In fact, you can print out a complete order detail sheet that goes to production with all the details of the job. And, when the job is ready to go you can download PRODUCTION READY high-res artwork in a Corel Draw CDR format or an EPS or PDF file format.

NEW Screen Print Module
DecoNetwork recently released more features for their Screen Print module including the ability to include screen charges on the order, special pricing look up tables that include pricing for underbases on dark shirts, the ability to set your own screen charges and other details of a screen print order and a lot more.  And the OnLine designer now supports screen printing! Brand new!

Check out the features of the new 5.1 version of DecoNetwork. Click HERE.

Click on images to enlarge. Click on lower right corner to enlarge bigger.

There are dozens – if not hundreds of other great features. A complete Features list to come.

OK… how much is it?

$99 per month*
• Complete DecoNetwork Store.
• One store only – no affiliate stores.
• No templates.
• No contract!
• No setup charge!
• Pay month-to-month.

$149 per month*
• Complete DecoNetwork Store.
• Create dozens/hundreds of affiliate stores (for your customers) at no additional cost.
• Dozens of Templates.
• No contract!
• No setup charge!
• Pay month-to-month.

* There is a 1.85% transaction fee charged on all orders placed through shopping cart.

Watch a quick video overview of DecoNetwork.

Over the years I have given thousands of classes and been in hundreds and hundreds of shops doing consulting.  I use to joke to my wife than in a lot of cases I could have “phoned it in.” That means that in many cases I encountered the same problems over and over and over. I could have given them this article instead. OK, there is more to life in screening than “Six Common Screen Printing Mistakes.” And, as you will see below, part of the list has nothing to do with Screen Printing and more to do with how you manage your business.

The following is a list of things I am very passionate about. If you want to have a successful screen printing business then please read this list and see where you fit in.

Mistake #1:  Using the same screen mesh for all jobs.

I don’t know why but this one never seems to sink in. I have been harping on this for years. A lot of printers rely on their screen print supply company to recommend mesh count and they end up with a lot of 110 and 125 mesh. OK, that works for the daily bread and butter spot color printing. BUT, the minute you move to any type of halftones or high-end photo realistic printing you need higher mesh. When you see that hot NASCAR print on a black shirt – I guarantee you that they are using a 190 to 230 mesh for the underbase white and a 305 for the colors. You need a wide variety of mesh if you want to do better quality work. You say your ink won’t go through the high mesh…. Read Mistake #2.

Mistake #2:  Using plastisol ink straight from the can.

Again, I have been talking about this for 20 years. Ink companies would like you to believe their ink is “ready for use.”  Good marketing. And, many brands of ink are very creamy and work well through high mesh screens. If your ink is too thick, simply add a little reduce and thin it. Get it creamy and smooth. It will flow through high mesh screens and on all of your multi-color jobs you will get less pickup, cleaner and softer prints and higher production. Nirvana!

Mistake #3:  Relying on word of mouth or only social media or internet marketing.

I find a lot of new printers simply don’t understand “traditional” marketing and selling. Everyone wants to use their Facebook page, Twitter and other social media. Or, they want to build a website and hope “they will come.” You need to step back and embrace traditional selling. Get out of the office and make the call. Go see people. Walk in their door. Take samples. Print samples. Get face time. Get a dialog going. Find out in person if your prices are too high or too low. Marketing and selling 101.

Mistake #4: Not keeping up with the industry and trends.

I talk to printers every day and often hear “we don’t do that.” The market has changed. The customer wants softer prints. They want what they see hanging in stores. They want edgy graphics.  They want the distressed look. Do you print with discharge ink? No? Why not? You heard it was too hard? Discharge ink gives a softer feel to the print. OK, it is waterbased and can have an odor but a LOT of printers have found out that this is what the customer wants – no hand to the print. How about ink additives that give your plastisol a waterbased feel? How do you find out these things? You read the trade magazine, follow industry forums and get out to trade shows.

Mistake #5:  Not being resourceful.

I can’t tell you how many times I have heard printers say they turned down a job because they didn’t know an artist to do the hot graphic the customer wanted. Artist are everywhere. You just have to look. Or, they didn’t know how to do the color separations. You can get high-end seps for $50. Or, the customer only wanted twelve shirts. Gee…. Maybe they would come back and order 150 after the first order. Or, the artwork needed too much cleanup. There are online services that will cleanup artwork for $15 to $20. Stop making excuses.

Mistake #6: Sticking with outdated equipment.

Part of my business is doing high-end color separations. I still get an email a week from a printer asking “can you do seps for this hot graphic on a black shirt – I only have a four color press.” I know – finances often dictate your equipment. But if you want to do better work and get bigger customers you need six colors – or more. I also get “I want to start to print halftones and I only have a laser printer.” Again, you have what you have. But, about ten years ago the industry changed to inkjet printers for film output. You can now get an Epson 13” x 18” printer for $200, and a software RIP for $400 and you have a thing of beauty. Crisp halftone dots. Dense black images. Screen that expose in register and jobs that setup quicker.

Look around your shop. To progress to the next level of printing halftone dots and doing more colors you need to look at your printer, your exposure unit and your film output. Your response is “this stuff has worked for me in the past.” That reminds me of the Restaurant Impossible show.  “We have been serving the same menu all these years and no one has complained….. but the business is off and we are losing customers.”

All I ask is that you trust me on these six points. Start today to see what you can do to change your ways.

We are pleased to report that we love the new look, feel and function of Photoshop CS6 – AND T-Seps works great in CS6 on both Mac and Windows platforms! We updated the T-Seps Installers for both Mac and PC on February 18, 2013. If you have tried T-Seps in the past and had problems with the installer – give it a second look by downloading the latest version at our Downloads Page. If you own T-Seps and need to upgrade – the upgrade is free from the Downloads Page. You may be asked to be unlocked again.

We do this every year. It starts to get cold – even in the desert – and we bundle up our products for great Holiday Savings! Start shopping now for year end deals. We have bundled products like T-Seps, T-RIP and our DVDs and other software to make very attractive package deals.This sale has been extended and is now good through January 4, 2013.

Along with our Bundles – EVERYTHING is on Sale! Now is the time to get T-Seps and T-RIP or any of our products that are designed to help you be a better and more successful printer. Happy Holidays!

Here are samples of our great offers.

• Shop-in-a-Box – All our DVDS, T-Seps, T-RIP DTP Bundle $875.00 (reg. 1,750.00)
• Class-in-a-Box – All our DVDs, Digital How To Print T-Shirts Bundle $199.00 (reg. $349.00)
• T-Seps, T-ART, Halftone Converter, any DVD Bundle $475.00 (reg. $794.00)
• T-Seps upgrade from FastFilms, T-ART, Halftone Converter Bundle $250.00 (reg. $368.00)
• T-Seps and T-RIP DTP Full Versions Bundle $775.00 (reg. $1,058.00)
• Upgrade from FastFilms to T-Seps for only $175.00 (reg. $199.00)
• Upgrade from FastRIP to T-RIP DTP $199.00 (reg. $249.00)
• T-Seps Color Separation Software for only $425.00 (reg. $495.00)
• Full version T-RIP DTP for film output $399.00 (reg. $449.00)
  Works with all 13″ and 17″ wide Epson printers!
• Halftone Converter download version for only $39.95 (reg. $69.95)
• T-Biz ART for only $79.95 (reg. $149.95)
• iPad download version of How To Print T-Shirts for only $29.95 (reg. $39.95)
• DVD version of How To Print T-Shirts for only $29.95 (reg. $49.95)
• DVDs from $14.95

It’s now Adobe’s turn. In May they rolled out Photoshop CS6 to much fanfare. Yes, there are new features – which I will quickly list later – but what is much different about CS6 is how you buy/license it. Rather than detail each and every new feature (there are dozens and dozens) in this article I would like to give you the highlights of what features (or lack of) you will love or miss. And, I would like to give you my opinion on the new Creative Cloud method of delivering the software.

Click on images on the right to enlarge them.

Let’s Look At Creative Cloud First
There seems to be a lot of opinions on this one – almost like political parties. Adobe now has a licensing option called Creative Cloud at www.CreativeCloud.com. For a low monthly fee of $49.99 per month you can download and use pretty much ALL of their programs. In fact if you have a licensed version of CS3 you can get a first year special offer of only $29.99 per month. These are on a one year contract. If you just want to try this service on a month-to-month it is only $75 per month and you can subscribe to just one program for only $19.99 per month. Such a deal!

On the surface it might appear that it would cost you more to do it this way if all you want to do is upgrade Photoshop which typically costs about $250 per year to upgrade. But look further. If you use Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator or any other programs, then I think this is a great deal. Why? Not only do you get all their programs BUT you can put them on two computers. Adobe calls the second version install a “backup” installation and it is very legal. And these computers can be Mac or PC. If you end up wanting to move one copy to a newer computer you simply deactivate one of the versions.

I love this feature. Since I develop software for both platforms, I have a Mac and PC. No longer do I have to upgrade both platforms. I also use Adobe Acrobat PRO for my manuals and I use Adobe Dreamweaver for some of my web development. And, I use In-Design for a lot of my printed matter. That means for $49.99 per month I can get ALL of these programs and put them on two computers! That is a HUGE savings.

In fact, I often talk to customers who are changing platforms (Mac to PC or PC to Mac) to accommodate their artists or often the type of RIP they are using for halftone output. They lament that they have to buy new software.

What if you are new to the world of Adobe products and have been dying to find a way to get the programs cheaper – or even on a payment plan. Here it is! You can see that I highly recommend considering the Creative Cloud if you want to use more than one of their products or if you are just starting out.

How does it work? You have to register with Adobe and get and Adobe ID. No big deal. You go to www.CreativeCloud.com and log in. Once you pay you have access to what is called Adobe Download Manager. It lists all the programs available and you simply click on Install for the ones you want. Just make sure you have a lot of free memory on the hard disk. These babies are big. It could not be easier. Adobe sends you upgrade notices and your computer needs to be online to authorize this install.

Photoshop CS6 Overview
Adobe did make major improvements to CS6. My only problem is that for some of you who only really use Photoshop to do color separations – you won’t see many changes. For those of you who design and create on Photoshop will like some of the changes. Without going into detail about each new feature I will do a quick listing here of the key changes. To find out more simply type in a web search of “changes to Adobe CS6” and you will find lots of sites with videos and details.

The Missing Screen Button
But first, let’s talk about what is NOT in CS6 – the missing “Screen” button. For a LOT of screeners this is the only reason they have not upgraded to CS6. Starting with CS5, Adobe removed the Screen button from the Print menu. This button allowed you to set the halftone LPI/frequency, angle and dot shape for Channel Separations. This is huge. It was easy to make your settings and print to a RIP for halftones.

To paraphrase Adobe’s official response  “Postscript has changed and there are problems with RIPs, blah, blah, blah.“ Wow. They never asked me if there were problems – there are not – and I have sold about 9,000 RIPs in this industry. Regardless of all the negative and nasty posts on Adobe support forums from screeners showing their dismay, Adobe says – “No way…. You screeners are out of luck.” OK, time to get over it. Our little industry doesn’t matter to Adobe and that’s that.

Moving on. What this means is that if you have a RIP for film output you will now have to go into the RIP and make changes. That is one more step because for most of us we use different halftone frequencies depending on the complexity of the job. I might use 55lpi or even 65lpi for high-end work but for simply cartoon stuff I could go down to 45lpi. When the Screen button was available it was a quick change. Now I have to go into T-RIP and make the changes before I send a job. And, if you send jobs to clients to print out – like I do, you want those settings as part of the file.

I do have a small inexpensive program I wrote called the Halftone Converter. Yes, it might seem like a blatant plug but I wrote this for myself to use and decided to sell it to make life easier for those with CS5 or CS6.

What’s New in CS6

New Look To Interface
The first thing you will notice is the new default dark color scheme. This can be a little off putting at first. We are all very use to the light gray color scheme and with the new darker look it can feel like you are hunting around in a cave for the tools. Many of you will like the new cool look. I for one, have taken the liberty of changing back to the lighter colors – available as an option in the Preferences menu.

Adobe was also painfully aware that the often let you do the same thing with different menus and different types of controls in these menus. They brought in an outside interface specialist to clean up the mess of inconsistencies. Nice job!

Enhanced Crop Tool
This change can take some getting used to in the way it works. You now have more control over aspect ratios, quick access to canvas changes and more. This tool was lacking and is now much better. In fact it is non-destructable meaning you can get back to your pre-crop image easily.

Speed Improvement
You will see a noticeable speed improvement in CS6. Adobe spent a lot of time working on hardware acceleration and now changes and effect happen in real time and are almost immediate. Their improved graphic “engine” called Mercury is blazing fast.

Automatic Image Correction
In earlier versions you could let Photoshop do auto image adjustments for you when in Curves, Levels and other image menus. These adjustments were never great and all of us knew that it took our own personal touch to improve an image. Rumor has it that Adobe brought in hundreds of artists to correct thousands of images manually and they documented the changes and built a database to apply the same real world logic to images. The Auto image correct feature is now much better.

Auto Save of Files
This one is nice. I can’t tell you how many times I had a crash or made a mouse click and save that I did not want and desperately wished I could go back in time. In CS6 you can tell Photoshop to do an Auto Save every 10, 15, 30 or 60 minutes. Nice!

Skin Tone Detection
This is one I am excited about. When doing color separations there is nothing harder than finding all the flesh tones because the various shades of one tone – highlight, shadow, midtone, etc. This is very cool. In the past to actually select flesh tones you would use Color Range to sample a color from the image. Even though you could add to your Selection it became hard if there were lots of shades of flesh.

When in Color Range you can now select Skin Tones as an option and a Detect Faces check box to make it more precise. It does a much better job of finding all the flesh tones and shades. If you do color separations in Photoshop you will use this feature.

Other Improvements and Changes
Other improvements have been made to the Blur Tool, Content Aware Patch, improved Cursors, new and improved Filters, additional Color Range changes, lots of new goodies for photographers, Type control changes, and more.

Important Fixes
I always found CS4 and CS5 to have weird bugs. My cursor would select areas I did not want, some tools had a mind of their own and more. The one “bug” that really annoyed me was the fact that when doing channel color separations, if you did not have Gamut Warning (under the View menu) checked, your separations would not display with Dot Gain applied that you set in the Color Settings menu. Bummer! They fixed this in CS6. You get an accurate display of the final channel seps with or without Gamut Warning checked.

Bad News For Older Mac Users
This one really hits home to me. I am basically a PC user. OK, you like what you came to the party with. But, I have an older Mac Mini that I use for development and testing. I was surprised to learn that Adobe had made CS6 64-bit only on Mac yet retained 32- and 64-bit compatibility for Windows. My Mac Mini won’t run CS6.

The funny thing is if you read all the Mac literature it is very hard to find out where Apple started making their computers 64-bit. I did a web search and was not alone. A lot of people ask “how do I know if my Mac is 64-bit?” I finally found an Apple support page that gave a chart. Click here to see it. I had to buy a newer Mac so I can run CS6 on it. Before you decide to upgrade you need to know if you can run a 64-bit program on your Mac.

Summary
OK, I like CS6. I am using it more and more. But, since I do color separations all day long and most of my customers have a RIP for film output, I end up either doing the seps in CS4 and setting the Screen button for the lpi and angle, or I do the seps in CS6 and then re-open the file in CS4 before I save it for my customers.  What a hassle.

But, with the speed improvements, the much improved Color Range menu with Skin Tone detection and other neat features, I can highly recommend CS6.

With the economy improving – trade shows in general seem to be getting stronger and SGIA was no exception. This year broke all records with 22,000 registrants and over 500 exhibiting companies. It only took a second to view the trade show floor and notice the isles and booths were very busy. You can often determine how a show will be by the opening crush of people. I think this year there were about three times as many people entering the show when it opened on Wednesday, October 19 than last year in New Orleans. It was a mob!

Click on images on the right to enlarge them.

Over the last few years SGIA has recognized they were losing the garment printing segment of buyers and exhibitors so they put together different Expert Advice Zones on the show floor. This year the Digital Apparel Production Zone and the Screen Printed Apparel Training Zone both were very busy with good attendance to the free show-floor seminars. I did two sessions in the Screen Printed Apparel Training Zone and had 20 to 30 people at each. I think people like being able to drop in on a short session and then move on to work the show.

Traditionally SGIA has always had paid seminars in meeting rooms. These are now called “classic” seminars. In years past (a long time ago), these seminars drew hundreds of people per session. That all changed as the show attendees declined over the years and I think as other sources of training like YouTube have proliferated. I did a session on High Color Separations that in the old days would have been standing room only. I am guessing I had about 35 people in my session this year. That seems to be normal for these sessions.

The Golden Images are always a hit and like the “classic” seminars, the number of entries has declined. The quality is still there but the mass of entries in each category is not. This is good news for those who do enter because there is less competition. 

I was one of the six “textile/garment” judges. There were the usual entries from some of the same companies that win year after year. This year the image that blew us away was from our friends a Midi Print in Russia that used 150 line halftones (YES!) printed with a discharge base on a black shirt and then waterbased inks on top. There was ZERO hand to the print and you couldn’t see the halftone dots.

This year’s best in show was an outstanding “latent image” high-density print (the type of print that shows a different graphic when viewed from the side) titled View Change Four Sides from the leaders in this type of printing – and regular Golden Image winners – Tarun Print Tech of Mumbai, India.

The surprise with this print is that it viewed different in ALL FOUR directions. Pictures don’t do this print justice. My only gripe with some of the entries is there were far too many with “Production Run 1” which means they did just one print and it was the one entered. Yes, having a novel high density print wins awards but it is not practical in production.

I always look forward to attending SGIA because as a member of the Academy of Screen Printing  Technology – now called the Academy of Screen and Digital Technology – it is a chance to see old friends, have a nice dinner and see presentations from Academy members. We also vote for the Best in Show for graphics and garments from the gold winners in the Golden Images.

One surprise is the lack of an awards banquet/dinner. Vegas is an unusual show city. People don’t really want to hang around at a dinner banquet when they would rather be on the Strip. It did feel different to not have this traditional event where there are a few speeches and the Best in Show winners are announced and the Parmele Award winner is presented (the highest honor you can receive). I am curious if this is a permanent change or if it was just for Vegas.

OK, what was new. I keep going to this show and others to see if there are any new breakout changes in the DTG sector. This year it was pretty much the same old thing. Yes, some direct-to-garment machines are faster but in general I think the machines have now found a home/niche and that people accept them. I don’t think the majority of screeners still “get it” or have embraced them. I was with a screen print friend from overseas who simply could not see why anyone would buy one of these machines but when I introduced him to another friend who runs three DTG machines 24/7, my screen print friend was shocked at the numbers.

While Kornit appears to be the strong leader with robust machines, there are now machines that sell for less than $7,000.

What was new on the DTG side was a pretreatment machine by BelQuette called the Edge that pretreats ONLY the image area. It pulls the underbase information from your DTG rip. We were working on this concept when we made DTG machines and it certainly makes sense. I was very happy to see someone finally come out with this.

It is obvious that the flavor of the year is CTS – Computer-to-Screen. M&R was showing their relatively new flatbed inkjet machine and Lawson rolled out their new and improved CTS printer that can image a screen in about 30 seconds! What is the attraction? No film. No undercutting. Perfect registration. Low ink costs. What still shocks me is the sticker price. Machines start around $40,000 – although I heard rumors of someone coming out with a $25,000 machine. I have a lot of customers with CTS machines and they love them – in general. Some have maintenance and short head life issues and there seems to be a little shakeout between the different methods of using wax, inkjet ink, or thermal ribbon. It appears inkjet ink is looking like a more popular choice.

As usual, there are industry leaders who simply think they don’t need SGIA. Many chose to exhibit with their dealers. Union Ink/Rutland was not there which is a shame because to me it is all about showing your face and your brand – regardless of how much business you write.  Workhorse and others decided years ago to sit it out.

I don’t have hard numbers but based on many of my former international dealers I ran into – it seems there are a lot more foreigners coming. After 911 it became much harder to get entry Visas to the US and SGIA’s international attendees dropped like a rock. Then with the economy taking a toll it did not improve. My unscientific take is this year they had more foreigners than in many years.

All in all I think SGIA is stronger than ever.