Seperations Studio Software

[rmonks]

Anyone using this, the You Tube video shows it to be pretty simple, and it works on both PS, or CDR , only draw back is it cost $895 , I have Quick Seps Professional, but haven't had the time to get good at using Photoshop.

[Frog]

My understanding on all separation software, is that none of them are fully automated, and all require some user tweaking to optimize results.
If I were you, already owning Quick Seps Pro, before plunking down another $895 dollars, I would at the very least take advantage of Steve Roginski's participation here to help you get the very most out of that program.
He has always been quite helpful.

[tpitman]

I watched the video, and the only advantage I see is that it'll run files from Illustrator, CorelDraw and Corel Photopaint in addition to Photoshop. On the other hand, perhaps simply not mentioned in the video, I don't see where it does anything other than simulated process. For what they're worth, QuikSeps and T-Seps do offer regular process and index in addition to simulated process.
Seems to me if you can export a Corel file to a format Photoshop will recognize that $895 is a lot to spend on the convenience of opening that CorelDraw file without exporting.

[Evo]

I watched the video, and the only advantage I see is that it'll run files from Illustrator, CorelDraw and Corel Photopaint in addition to Photoshop. On the other hand, perhaps simply not mentioned in the video, I don't see where it does anything other than simulated process. For what they're worth, QuikSeps and T-Seps do offer regular process and index in addition to simulated process.
Seems to me if you can export a Corel file to a format Photoshop will recognize that $895 is a lot to spend on the convenience of opening that CorelDraw file without exporting.

I think you have it backwards here...

Sep Studio will open pretty much any raster file that will support transparency, but I think it's .tif that works best. The resulting separated file can be loaded into Corel and then scalable text and other vector elements can be added and output with the same spot colors as the seps generated in Sep Studio. That way you are printing sharp text on top of the raster seps. (and not depending on high resolution to make the text clean).

Sep studio can also produce a black plate so the seps can be used on light garments.

I dove head first into the trial but I never went ahead and bought it, I never really had the demand for it.


I tweaked it a bit for use with printing with wb dye discharge inks (instead of opaque plastisols) and the results were quite good. It meant brightening up some of the colors, eliminating the underbase (yes!) and tweaking or eliminating the highlight white.

[ZooCity]

Jason did you find sep studio to offer anything that a good skill set in working in PS with channel seps does not? 

I find channel separating to be pretty natural and easy going save for my lack of some intermediate PS skills.  Then, I convert my channels to spot color, save as .psd or .dsc and place into Illustrator for vector additions and final output to Accurip.  Using the spot colors once in Illy and overprint setting it works quite smoothly and seems only limited by my own skills. 

I saw the trial vid and it seemed that sep studio simply offers a better workspace for previewing the composites and automates some of the process for you.   I do like that it seems to be less of a "seps in a can" program and more catered to adjusting your plates and predicting the outcome.  I find it hard to shell out that price for it though over other things we could use. 

[Fluid]

My understanding on all separation software, is that none of them are fully automated, and all require some user tweaking to optimize results.

You are absolutely correct.  I have found that most of the sep software will yield a decent separation from  a click of the button yet nothing that will separate you a part from your competition.  Having a good understanding of all separation methods, Spot, Simulated, Index as well as true 4 color process will make these programs worth while. My self, I have been using Fast Films, Now T Seps (i believe) since it was first introduced. I use the prog for a starting point yet on average spend at minimum, 1-2 hours tweaking the seps.  Sometimes I cant even get a good starting point and just do them myself the old school way.   Saving an hour or so on a separation job means mroe money in the pocket and the opportunity to get on to the next job.

If you already have a sep program, why purchase another one.  Get down and dirt and learn it.  I know it sometimes seems like it could take forever, yet once you learn it, you will be spending more time designing and printing rather than separating which mean more money.

[ravenmark]

I have not used this version but I did use all of the versions before it all the way back to it being just a PS add on with great results. I always used Photoshop version 5.5, after running the seps, for adjustments though with channels set to selection. Channels previewed that way in PS 5.5 was a ton more accurate (on how spots actually print) than later versions where they now look washed out. After Adobe changed the way channels previewed on a comp screen Freehand came out with viewrite, the predecessor to this version, for the correct previewing of spot colors. It is pretty much what you see is what you get on the shirt if you use their color set & print order. Not many peeps still have a version of PS 5.5 or earlier laying around and if you do it does not seem to run on windows 7 anymore. That being said Seperations Studio may be a plus if you are a real visual type person. From what I see this version also has a lot of bells and whistles previous versions did not for straight up simulated seps. If you are using something else though with great results it is quite the chunk of change for the addition of the awesome preview feature. If you do not have a sep program i do believe it is top notch compared to the other options out there. If you are low on USB ports it does require a dongle. Dane Clements of Great Dane Graphics is a long time user of it and has a ton of great tutorials out there.