Hi,

We are Gobo manufacturer (a Gobo is a device that is placed within theatrical type lighting fixture to project an image) and use photolithography to manufacture high resolution glass gobos. The problem we encounter in manufacturing is dot loss in the etching processes; the opposite of the printing world where they experience dot gain. At 25 percent or less we experience complete dot failure(washing away of the dot).
I was wondering is there a tool or plug-in in Photoshop that would highlight tones of 25 percent or less for each CMYK separation to help us better predict the viability of a job?

Any help would be much appreciated.

I literally just read something, kinda related to this, just this morning.

This article talks about CMYK printing vs. RGB printing.

One of the tips, in Photoshop, is click on View > Gamut Warning and you'll see the trouble areas.

Hopefully something in there will help you out.

Where is Jerry717 when we need him?

WOw - this is an INTERESTING challenge.

If I understand this (and I'm sure I don't ) you need to find out the parts of the image, FOR EACH COLOUR CHANNEL, where the pixel "density" drops below 25%?

I'm wondering if you could use CURVES to find that turnover point, and then boost what is on the BAD side of that turnover point?

In other words, boost the loosers without overloading the okay pixels.

Just thinking out loud here. (notice how it is VERY QUIET!? )

We have a problem with dots under 6% on our Flexo presses.
Anything lower than this just completely drops off...
so to cure that we set up a curve in photoshop to make any dots under 6% go up to that point.

I don't know if that helps or not.. but
here
http://www.box.net/shared/lnopp6vys6
Just load the preset in your
Layer>NewAdjLayer>Curves hit OK
then go to load preset and then use the file.
its the actual curve we use, it could give you an idea to make your own.
beauty of it is being able to adjust it w/o screwing up your image permanently.

sorry I'm not more precise..
maybe Vokaris could help you more.

What I said, dude!
(you just done gone n' said it better, yup! )

You'll probably be better off if you can create a proper color profile, instead of the built-in CMYK SWOP. You can also play with dot sizes and screens.

If you only need a 'warning system', how about adding some solid color fill layers on top and adjusting the Blending options for each Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Black channels, e.g. for Cyan "Blend if" underlying layer has less than 25% in the cyan channel (0 is black, 255 is white, so <25% should be between 192 and 255)





Here's a link to the PSD

I think that does it then!

This is why I evoked his name