SimRip 3.0

SimRip 3.0

SimRip is a Halftone converter for Adobe Photoshop. The SimRip script  converts the gray values in a color channel to halftone ellipses, dots or lines, within Adobe Photoshop. The resulting halftones can be printed to film, or the imaging device of your choice, with or without a Rip.  SimRip3 runs in Adobe Photoshop CS3 through CC. English version only.
(Please note, the scripts only work in English language versions of Adobe Photoshop)

Install
Find the read-me txt file in the download for complete installation instructions. The Script should be installed in Adobe Photoshop’s® Scripts folder for best results. Copy the entire pspscripts folder, containing the YRGBK2.jsx file, to the applications scripts folder:
~ /Adobe Photoshop/presets/scripts

Processing a file
SimRip will operate on any document you put into it, however, it is best to start with an Adobe Photoshop color separation document, in CMYK or Multichannel  mode. In the Applications menu select:
File/Scripts/PSP SimRip3

SimRip operates on a documents Channels, so any layers will be flattened, and outputs a Multichannel document.

The Main Window
The main window displays 2 panels. The left panel displays options for converting each channel in the document to halftones in four columns.

• Dot Size, Angle and Shape – The first column in the main window is the channel name, followed by the Dot size, The Screen Angle, and the Dot Shape. The default setting is a  50 Line per inch, 22.5 degree Elliptical dot.

Size – The Dot size is displayed in dots per inch. Screen printed dots often range from 35 Lpi to 60 Lpi. 50 Lpi is a good, printable dot for most applications.

Angle – The Screen angle determines the orientation of the dot screen applied to each channel. for Screen Printing it is best to rotate the angle off the standard 45 degree rotation to avoid interference patterns from the Printing mesh or textile substrate. For multi color printing it is also helpful to rotate color sets to avoid Moire patterns. A good approach is to use:
22.5 degrees for  White and Yellow channels.
52.5 degrees for Red and Orange channels
82.5 for Blue, Green and Purple channels
52.5 for Black and Gray channels

Shape – The dot shape options are Ellipse, Round and Line. For most halftone applications an elliptical dot is preferred. For special effects and custom applications both the round dot and the halftone line are nice options.

Options
The right panel displays the output options for the script.

• Output PPI – determines the final resolution of the output document. For quality halftone representation at 50 LPi, a resolution between 600 and 720 is recommended. The default resolution is 720 PPI.

• Print Preview – The preview function applies a gain curve to each channel during processing. This provides the option to see how a print may appear on press.

• Preview PPI – If the Print preview option is selected, the Preview PPI overrides the Output PPI, allowing a lower resolution file to be processed. This speeds up the processing of the preview file.

• Dot Gain – the amount of increase applied to each channel by the curve.

• Transfer Function – Provides a dialog which allows an adjustment curve to be applied to each channel during processing. Transfer functions are used to adjust for gain that occurs during the imaging process.

• Show Dialogs – Displays Adobe Photoshops Bitmap conversion dialog for each channel during processing.

Success – When the script has completed it will display the Success dialog. Checking the about box displays information about the script.