This is important for two reasons. One, the original layer can now act as your backup layer, and two, you need to create a new layer for each color in the artwork. Illustrator is picky about when you can create a new layer, however, so you must click on the Illustrator window outside of the canvas to make sure no part of the artwork is currently selected before creating a new layer.
Screen printing is without doubt the most common method of garment decoration. Unlike other methods, like direct-to-garment printing and sublimation printing, screen printers can only print one color at a time. So, in order to print artwork that contains more than one color, screen printers must be able to separate the colors in order to print them individually. High resolution (300 DPI) bitmap images can be used, but because they are composed of thousands of tiny dots, selecting colors is much more difficult, especially with gradient colors. However, this is a much easier process when working with vector images.
Adobe Illustrator, a vector graphic design software program, is a great tool for separating colors for screen printing. Once you have loaded artwork into Illustrator, separating colors is fairly simple. The first step is to create a second layer, which can be done by clicking the “Create New Layer” button at the bottom of the “Layers” window, which is located on the bottom right of the screen. This is important for two reasons. One, the original layer can now act as your backup layer, and two, you need to create a new layer for each color in the artwork. Illustrator is picky about when you can create a new layer, however, so you must click on the Illustrator window outside of the canvas to make sure no part of the artwork is currently selected before creating a new layer.
The next step is to select a color within the artwork, which can be accomplished a few different ways. You can use the “Select,” “Direct Select,” “Magic Wand,” or “Select>Same” tools. The “Select” tool selects an entire object, while the “Direct Select” tool is more specific, selecting an object within a larger object to edit. The “Magic Wand” tool or using Select > Same > Fill Color both select all objects of the same color within a layer.
Once a color has been selected from the original layer, it should be copied and then “Pasted in Place” onto a new layer. This will have no effect on the original layer, but it will isolate all of each color in a new layer. Each color in the original layer must be selected one at a time and then copy-pasted in place on a new layer.
Once each color is separated into its own layer, it is a good idea to apply a CMYK fill color. To do this, select a layer and then, within the appearance settings, click on “fill color.” From here you can apply a different fill color, create a new color swatch/fill color, or even make the color transparent. You will want to click on the “Create New Fill Color” option, which will allow you to enter CMYK values. Because most screen print designs feature four colors or less, we can make four color swatches using the CMYK colors. Simply make one of C, M, Y, or K 100% and the other three 0%. Once you have created the color swatches, go to each layer and apply one of the color swatches to the fill color. With each layer as one of the CMYK colors, the design is now color-separated.
