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Color separation
Split a design into its colours - one black-and-white film per screen, with registration marks, or a layered PSD.
or drop it here
How to use the color separation
- Add your designAny artwork, print or scan - JPG, PNG or WEBP.
- Choose the coloursSet how many colours (screens) the print has; the main colours are found by themselves.
- Clean and checkClean specks so every film can be printed; click a colour to see its film alone.
- Download the filmsOne black-and-white PNG per screen with registration marks, or a Photoshop file with a layer per colour.
Made for
- Screen printers making films for fabric, T-shirts, paper and signs
- Designers preparing artwork for spot-colour printing
- Print units counting the screens (and the cost) of a design
- Anyone reducing a picture to a few flat colours
About this tool
In screen printing every colour is printed through its own screen, and every screen is made from a film: black where the colour prints, clear everywhere else. Colour separation turns one design into those films. This tool finds the design's main colours, gives every pixel the nearest of them, cleans away specks too small for a screen to hold, and makes one film per colour - all the same size with the same registration marks, so the screens line up on the press. The biggest colour can be left as the fabric itself. Download the films as PNG, or a layered Photoshop file to fine-tune. Everything happens in your browser: your design is never uploaded.
Questions
What is colour separation?
Splitting a design into its colours so each one can be printed on its own: in screen printing every colour needs its own screen, made from a film that is black where that colour prints. This tool finds the design's main colours and makes one film for each.
How many colours should I choose?
As many as your print allows - each colour is one more screen. Most screen prints use 2 to 8; set the number and see the result at once. If two shades should be one colour, choose fewer.
What does "clean specks" do?
Scanned or blurred artwork has tiny dots of in-between colours that a screen cannot hold. Clean specks gives those small patches the colour around them, so every film has clean, printable shapes.
What is the fabric colour?
The design's biggest colour is often the colour of the cloth itself, which is not printed. When "No screen for the fabric colour" is on, it gets no film; turn it off to print it as well.
What do I download?
A ZIP with one black-and-white PNG film per colour (with registration marks, so the screens line up), the separated design and a list of the colours with their HEX and RGB values - or a Photoshop PSD with every colour on its own layer.
Is my design uploaded?
No. The colours are separated inside your browser, on your own computer.
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