DesignFix Design Studio
Color separation
Separation is the step between a design and a press. Each colour that will be printed needs its own layer, and how a design should be divided depends almost entirely on the equipment, the inks and the garment or stock it is going on.
What this covers
What we work on in color separation
Spot colour separation
Artwork split into defined, named colours — one layer per screen or plate.
Reducing the colour count
A design brought down to the number of colours your setup can actually run, deliberately rather than automatically.
Underbase and trapping
The white base for dark garments, and the small overlaps that stop gaps appearing where colours meet.
Preparing artwork to separate
Rebuilding a design as clean vector first, where the source cannot be separated as it stands.
Projects that fit here
Examples of the kind of thing people send us. If yours isn’t on the list, describe it anyway.
- A design reduced from full colour to four printable spot colours
- Separations prepared for a dark garment with an underbase
- A gradient rebuilt as a halftone the press can hold
- Artwork vectorised first because the source is a compressed image
- Trapping added where two colours meet and registration is tight
- A file separated to a specific shop's house conventions
Who this tends to be for
Screen printers
Customer artwork that has to be separated before it can be quoted or run.
Brands ordering printed runs
Where colour count drives the cost and the artwork should be built around it.
Anyone told their design has too many colours
Reducing them well is a design decision, not a slider setting.
There is no universal separation
The same artwork is separated differently by two competent printers, and both are correct for their own setup. The number of screens available, the mesh, the inks, the garment or stock colour, whether an underbase is printed, how tightly the press registers, and whether halftones are viable all change the right answer.
That is why we ask rather than assume. Tell us what you are printing on and with — colours available, garment or stock colour, underbase, and any conventions your shop works to — and separations are prepared to fit. If you do not have that detail yet, we can prepare artwork that is structurally ready to separate and flag clearly which decisions still need your printer's input.
The step before separation matters too, and it is often where the real work is. Artwork supplied as a flattened image usually cannot be separated meaningfully: there are no discrete colour areas to divide, only pixels that happen to be similar shades. Rebuilding it as vector first is frequently part of the job, and we will say so rather than producing separations that look plausible and print badly.
Where a design genuinely cannot be reduced to the colours available without losing what makes it work, we will tell you that too — sometimes the right advice is a different print process rather than a worse version of this one.
How it works
From a sentence to a finished design
- Step 1
Tell us what you need
One or two sentences is enough to start. You don't have to know what the work is called or which category it belongs in.
- Step 2
We discuss the project
We ask what we need to know — where it will be used, what size, what it has to work on — and tell you honestly what is and isn't possible.
- Step 3
Share files or references
Send the artwork you already have, a photo, a sketch, or examples of the look you're after. Files go straight into private storage.
- Step 4
You get a custom offer
A written scope and a fixed price for your project specifically. Nothing is charged and nothing is started until you accept it.
- Step 5
Approve and pay
Accepting the offer creates the order and takes you to payment. Decline it or ignore it and nothing happens.
- Step 6
We complete the design
The work runs through the same production and delivery process as every other DesignFix order, with revisions included in the scope.
What to send us
You don't need to know what to ask for
None of this is required, and a single sentence is enough to start. It's simply what tends to be useful, so a first message doesn't turn into three.
Whatever artwork you have
The file itself, however rough — an export, a screenshot, a photo of something printed, or the version a supplier rejected.
A reference or a sketch
Something you like the look of, a rough drawing, or an existing design you want the new work to sit alongside.
Where it's going
The product, the size, and the process if you know it. Print, garment, screen or sign changes what the artwork has to be.
Any specification you were given
A printer's requirements, a supplier's template, or the rejection message you received — that usually says exactly what needs fixing.
Colours and brand material
Existing brand colours, fonts or guidelines, so new work matches what you already have.
What you want changed
A sentence is enough. "Make this printable", "this needs to work on a dark shirt", "I want something like this but ours".
Questions
Common questions
Tell us what you need
Describe the project in a sentence or two. We’ll ask what we need to know, then send a written scope and a fixed price before anything is charged.