Using Photoshop Threshold to Separate Colors for Screenprint

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Using Photoshop Threshold to Separate

Colors for Screenprint
By FABER | Published: JANUARY 31, 2011

This semester, Im taking a digital printmaking class, so I may have a couple of

tutorials on here that are specifically related to topics surrounding
screenprinting or preparing digital images for print. Heres the first one
When you are preparing an image for screenprinting, you have to separate out
the various colors in order to make a stencil that you will ultimately use to
print each color individually. There are lots of ways to separate out colors, but
today Im going to explain how to do it using the Threshold Layer Adjustment
in Photoshop. This method is a bit different than separating by actual colors
instead, well be using the luminosity values to determine the separations.
For this example, Im going to start with a photographic image of a timepiece,
and Im going to prepare it to be printed in 4 colors.

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First, open the image in Photoshop.

Looking at this image, Ive decided ahead of time that I want to break it down

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http://sites.duke.edu/oit-mps/2011/01/31/using-photoshop-threshold-to-se...

into four colors a light yellow, a light grey, a dark gold, and a dark grey (in
order from lightest to darkest which is the order that well print it as well).
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have any of the other three colors, Ill start by just making a new layer in
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Name that layer light yellow and then hide it by clicking on the little eye next
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For the next color, our light grey, were going to make a Threshold layer. Select
the background layer and then go to Layer > New Adjustment Layer >
Threshold.

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Essentially, what threshold does is it takes a value of luminosity (brightness)

and says anything less than this value is going to be black, and anything

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greater than this value is going to be white. Because the light grey layer will
be below two other layers, we want the black area of this layer (which will
eventually be the grey part) to be most of the image. The other two layers
above will have progressively smaller areas of black (corresponding to their
ultimate colors). Anywhere that is white will ultimately be transparent,
showing the layer below (in this case, the light yellow layer). For this image,
Ill move my slider over to the right to around 180 or so. This is the part that is
going to take some tweaking to find the right balance.

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Right now this threshold layer exists as an adjustment on top of the layer
below. What we need to do in order to print this properly for screenprinting is
make this a pixel layer. First, duplicate the background layer (so we still have
our original below). Then select the background layer as well as the threshold
adjustment and then go to Layer > Merge Layers (or cmd-E on a Mac).

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Next we want to get rid of the white part, so, using the magic wand tool, with
contiguous unchecked in the top bar, click on the white area and push delete. If
we want to now color this layer, go ahead and hide it for a moment by clicking
on the eye next to the layer name, then using the eyedropper, grab a light grey
from the background layer below. Then, using the magic wand (making sure
contiguous is unchecked), select the black area and then go to Edit > Fill, and
choose foreground color. You can now turn on the light yellow layer below to
see how the composite looks so far. Make sure your new layer (which at this
point should be named light grey) is above the light yellow layer.

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Next you need to repeat all of the steps above (starting at For the next
color) to make another threshold layer. For this layer, choose a lower
luminosity value and then color with the dark gold:

Finally, one more trip to the steps above to do the final dark grey layer and
well have a nice design separated out into four colors.

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To screenprint, there are a few different paths to go down at this point (and Im
not going to get into too much detail for this part)but essentially youll have
to merge all the layers together so you have a flat, four-color image, then use
the magic want to select each color from the flat image, duplicate that layer up
to a new layer and convert to all black. Repeat for each color and then print
each of those four print layers to be used to make your screen.
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5 Comments

Thomas The Train

Posted September 27, 2011 at 12:51 am | Permalink

My friend I have been looking all over for this exact same thing. I cannot tell you
how difficult it has been trying to figure out this color separation thing. Thanks for
the blog post.
Reply

Joanna Swan
Posted April 25, 2012 at 11:03 am | Permalink

this is fabulous. Ive actually had trouble finding a good tutorial bridging the
photoshop/screenprint process, so thank you MUCH for providing. Hoping to make
some aesthetically successful Occupy posters and this is exactly what I needed.
Best,
Joanna Swan
Reply

Chrystal
Posted June 23, 2012 at 7:03 pm | Permalink

Thanks for posting this tutorial. I went through it step-by-step, and it really helped
me out!
Reply

Dan Divs
Posted August 9, 2012 at 1:05 pm | Permalink

Thank you for posting this, I have been looking for good technical advice regarding
this process for a while now. Thanks for giving me new oppurtunities for my prints
and printmaking, I also plan to use this technique for printing lithographs and color
etchings in conjunction with halftones.
Dan

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Reply

Javier Torres
Posted February 11, 2013 at 6:33 pm | Permalink

INCREDIBLE!! I only own photoshop elements and have been stuck without
halftones.. This is quite the solution.
Thank you
Reply

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