two seperations one plate

[Slammer]

Hi all, looking for information on how to get two or more seperations on one plate in Preps 7.0 without using a preseperated PDF. Is there a way to do this?

 

[Slammer]

...it would also help to find out how to image only half a plate, then turn it round and image the other half with the second seperation, using a trendsetter by the way.

 

[Stephen Marsh]

Can you alias/map the ink in Preps from one plate to another?

If not, you could dupe the PDF and alias/map from one plate to the other plate using Acrobat Pro, PitStop Pro, PDF Workflow software such as Prinergy etc. That way both files have the same ink colour and you output only the required ink colour. Or the Workflow or RIP alias/maps or only outputs the required separation etc.

In the flexo world, separations are output to plate resolution 1-bit TIFF and Kodak TIFF Assembler Plus software is used to combine separations and jobs onto a single flexo plate, creating a ganged 1-bit TIFF for output… A similar approach could be taken in an offset environment using RIPed data rather than composite data and Preps, even if this is not the regular way to do things it is an option.


Stephen Marsh

 

[alan]

To burn only half a plate you will need to set up a new plate size that is half of the width of the plate you want to image. When you load the plate the Trendsetter only looks at the distance around the drum not across so it will load the plate and only expose the first half. We have been doing this for quite a while and it works great, much easier than trying to put 2 different seperations onto one imposition. You will probably need to create some new Preps templates. We also added a mark so they knew where to cut the plate.

 

[Slammer]

Can you alias/map the ink in Preps from one plate to another?

If not, you could dupe the PDF and alias/map from one plate to the other plate using Acrobat Pro, PitStop Pro, PDF Workflow software such as Prinergy etc. That way both files have the same ink colour and you output only the required ink colour. Or the Workflow or RIP alias/maps or only outputs the required separation etc.

In the flexo world, separations are output to plate resolution 1-bit TIFF and Kodak TIFF Assembler Plus software is used to combine separations and jobs onto a single flexo plate, creating a ganged 1-bit TIFF for output… A similar approach could be taken in an offset environment using RIPed data rather than composite data and Preps, even if this is not the regular way to do things it is an option.


Stephen Marsh

A ganged one bit TIFF is the way I was suggesting, however there is a way to use a mask in Preps to cover the plate area then turn the plate around and image the second flat, I personally find this way far to clumsy but the customer wants it this way.

 

[Slammer]

To burn only half a plate you will need to set up a new plate size that is half of the width of the plate you want to image. When you load the plate the Trendsetter only looks at the distance around the drum not across so it will load the plate and only expose the first half. We have been doing this for quite a while and it works great, much easier than trying to put 2 different seperations onto one imposition. You will probably need to create some new Preps templates. We also added a mark so they knew where to cut the plate.

That sounds like the solution to this problem, gonna try this tomorrow.

 

[PDL]

I’ve seen a situation like this before. A prepress shop wanted two separations on one plate because they then cut the plate in half to save plate costs.
What they ended up doing was to rip the separations then ‘wrap’ the TIFF files (embed them) in PDFs that could be stepped 1 up 2 across and sent that imposition back to the rip and that layout was plated. Did that with the workflow product they had in place so it was automated, not sure if you have the tools to do the same or if that would work for you.

 

[johnny_jay]

We have done something similar but did it with impositions, one plate was upper and lower of the same signature/color. When then cut the plates after imaging. We had a custom plate cutter made that handled two sizes of plates.

John Stewart

 

[Slammer]

There is also another way to do it in preps with a plate mask function, works just fine.