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Merging colors into separate layers

by chewp1
rss 33 weeks ago
So I was browsing this forum and saw that when I submit my art it has to have each color in a separate layer. Now I'm a sign maker and our printers don't require this done so I'm a bit lost. I have already used spot colors but when i send them to separate layers it'll mess the artwork up. Say i select a brown and send it to a layer it may cover up parts that are black that should be in front of it. Does this make sense? How do i work around this? I use illustrator,Photoshop and flexi.
Thanks for your time.
3Comments
  • image
    32 weeks ago
    Yes I think I understand. If you have red behind black, but some red is in front also. Then select the black that is behind the red and delete that. That way when you move all red to its own layer under black, the red will still show through to seem like parts are in front of black (or higher layers) when in fact, the higher layers that would be in front of the red have simply had that portion of their color deleted. How that makes sense or helps. Good luck
  • image
    32 weeks ago
    This is something you only need to worry about if Teefury selects your art and you have to send them your master file. But for future reference, if you're working in Illustrator, select all, expand everything into filled / closed paths, then hit trim in the pathfinder. This should automatically get rid of all your overlapping elements, allowing you to separate each color group into individual layers.
  • image
    31 weeks ago
    Not being an illustrator, I'd be tempted to (in a separate copy of the file; don't screw up your Master!) "Merge Down" to a "flat" image or whatever it's called in your program and then select-by-color (pretty sure GIMP can do this, don't know about your program), and copy the pixels of that selected color into a new layer? Paste as New Layer? Then do this for each color? Make sure your transparencies are set right, etc. etc.

    But that's just an inelegant brute-force approach from a novice n00b... ;)

    Sounds like Nakedrowlf possibly has the more "elegant" solution? Dunno. Guess it depends what program you're using and what functions it has...

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