How do I do colour separations?

Colour separations in Vectornation by Zaweba take two steps. First check the inks in Window > Print and output > Separations preview, then print with separations turned on in File > Print (Ctrl+P), which puts each ink on its own page. Add registration marks so the plates or screens line up.

Separations split a design into one image per ink. Offset printers make a plate from each, and screen printers make a screen from each, so the quality of the separations decides how cleanly the colours sit together on the finished print.

Check the inks first

Separations preview shows any mix of the inks in your document, so you can switch them on and off one at a time and see exactly what will be on each plate. It also shows coverage and the highest total ink, which is the darkest point where several inks overlap.

Look for surprises. A black headline that turns out to be made from all four process inks will be hard to keep in register. A colour you thought was a spot ink might really be a process mix, or the reverse. A stray object in a spot colour adds a whole extra plate for one tiny shape.

The Inks counter tells you at a glance how many colours the design uses. For screen printing, where every colour is another screen and another pass, that number is worth watching from the start.

Printing the separations

Open File > Print. Each artboard prints at 300 ppi through the Windows print dialog, at fit or actual size. Turn on separations and you get one page per ink rather than one composite page.

Add printer's marks. Registration marks are the targets used to line the layers up, and trim marks show where to cut. Colour bars and page information can go on too, and page information is especially useful for separations, because it labels each sheet with the ink it carries. Save the settings as a preset if you do this often.

If your printer is a PostScript device, Send as PostScript passes the job to it directly.

Clean separations on press

Use spot colours on purpose. If the job is two-colour, build it from two swatches set as spot colours, and the separations will come out as exactly two pages. Vectornation's swatches handle global and spot colours, and you can load your own spot colour books in .ase, .acb, .aco or .gpl form and snap colours to the nearest entry. No Pantone data is shipped with the app, so use the books you already own.

Turn on Overprint preview where colours are meant to overprint. On separations, overprint decides whether an ink knocks a hole in the one below or prints on top of it, and getting that wrong causes gaps or muddy colour.

Keep fine detail in mind. Hairlines and tiny text in a light ink can vanish on a screen. Check them at actual size before you print.

Going to a commercial printer instead

Many printers prefer to make the separations themselves from a PDF. In that case, export a PDF/X-4 in CMYK with your print profile embedded as the output intent, plus bleed and printer's marks, and let them do the rest. Separations preview is still worth a look so you know what they will see.

For packaging, Vectornation's finish layers keep foil, spot UV, embossing and die-cuts on their own layers, which go to the printer as separate plates in the same way inks do.

Vectornation by Zaweba is free software for Windows that works offline and needs no account.