@Subpath Awesome! I'll have to play around with it. I think I found the website
https://concepts.app/en/

Yes, that is the Website.
Have to say that the Windows Version is a bit limited, no Watercolor Brush
and a few other things i dont remember. But has the Airbrush and the Pencil.
You could try the free Demo.

I own the iPad Version. Also if you deciced to buy the App, look carefully
it seems subscription based. But there is also an Non-subscription version
(i own this Version).

I have this:
Essentials 14,99 € (the non Subcription Version)
PDF-Essentials 4,99 € ( for PDF Export )
Shape Library 1,99 € ( Kind of Clipboard/Asset Browser )

"...Are those brushes bitmap based though? ..."

These brushes are not skeleton brushes like in Affinity Designer, where you move
a bitmap virtually on a vector line.

In Concepts with the built-in watercolor, airbrush and pencil brush. I can zoom to
the maximum (1600%) without it getting pixelated. And also with other built-in brushes.
The watercolor brush even mixes the colors a little bit and everything runs smoothly,
without any delays. In addition, Concepts has also an infinite canvas.

Concepts behaves similarly to a vector application, but uses a different philosophy.
Vector lines do not have Nodes, you can move a line into a curve with a Pull-Tool.
There are also no Boolean operators to cut objects. You can fake it a bit with the masking tool,
and there is a real vector eraser.
I think it comes pretty close to a vector paint program.

Here yet two Videos that shows some Brushes
of the "Concepts" App (iPad) and belive it or not.
It is still vector graphics everything stay editable.

Concepts, draw a shoe

Concepts, draw a perfume bottle

thanks

... If you figure out cool tricks in VS, let me know- share in the
forum for sure ...

I will definitely do

Found the issue: it does not show up on the spot plates. This is a bug.

Awesome! Getting this fixed will be great as I can begin to send out separation files exporting right from VS!

" ... What kind of digital printing do you do now? ..."
I don't work anymore
I do vector graphics only for fun/hobby or friends now.

Here a small collection. The first two, are things I have
also done professionally. Whereas I designed "wood saws"
privately for a friend. The other, in my spare time to try
different styles.

The rest is private stuff. Lately I like to experiment with
symmetrical designs. I will continue to do so.

Btw. if you think the little man in the last line, would not be vector graphics
Then you are half wrong. Is made in Concepts an app I like to use on my iPad.
It is a vector app but partially with bitmap like brushes. The others are mostly
CorelDraw.

@vectoradmin said in Exporting Final Art from VS for others including non-VS users:

@Boldline said in Exporting Final Art from VS for others including non-VS users:
I tried using the built in registration black to no avail.... it would not show up on the final output pdf.

Found the issue: it does not show up on the spot plates. This is a bug.

@Boldline said in Exporting Final Art from VS for others including non-VS users:

What I need to figure out still is a working registration black I can use when I do this method of printing...

Did you try using the Registration color in the VS default palette (should be just after the null color)?
That should print on all plates.

I tried using the built in registration black to no avail.... it would not show up on the final output pdf.

I've attached the file here in hopes @b77 and @vectoradmin in particular could help me find a solution.
0_1641349834100_CC Bulldogs Seps.vstyler

Will look, but do not expect anything special
I'm more experimenting at the moment.
To find out solutions for some ideas.

Btw. like your Designs and must say that you do a really good job.

thank you!

Would love to see stuff you do currently, even for yourself

In my last job, I was also only doing vector designs, new products
with marketing, the Designs were mostly safety signs and labels,
custom road signs and so on and Designs on customer request.

The digital printers were two "Gerber Edge," if you know them and we
also had two vinyl plotters, I forget the name. Later also a large
UV ink printer.

Btw. like your Designs and must say that you do a really good job.

Regarding your screen printing photos above.

Found it interesting that your designs are screen printed
I was a screen printer for about 12 years mainly printing foils
and signs.

And after that job I was a screen printer again for about 8 weeks in
T-shirt printing and we had the same workflow as you describe with
your photos above. Brings back some memories

After that I went into digital printing, and created the vector graphics there.

What I need to figure out still is a working registration black I can use when I do this method of printing...

Did you try using the Registration color in the VS default palette (should be just after the null color)?
That should print on all plates.

One thing to do is to gather (difficult) examples where merge or union is failing, or it is slow. There is no excuse of having VS merge be less usable than AI merge.

Awesome! I appreciate that vision! Merge and Union improved a lot in 2021.
I'll keep testing things and sending in examples when it happens. I know there were a few examples recently I sent in that you found worked better with union than with merge or vice versa. Are you able to go back and look at those?

A long time ago before I worked for myself, one of the Screenprinting shops was just beginning to experiment with halftone printing and we started with an open source RIP called "GhostRip"
It was a little clunky 10 or so years ago when I used it. It took a number of steps at the time to use and eventually we went to using Accurip.
Accurip however, has become the bane of many a screen printer due to its excessive cost and licensing.

I downloaded your file and edited my settings and it produced the three pdfs as you mentioned - this is a lot like what I would do in Illustrator when I printed films while working at a screen print shop (instead of just doing the art in my office working for myself now) so I'm understanding completely what is happening - thank you for showing me. I will be doing this way going forward in VS.

What I need to figure out still is a working registration black I can use when I do this method of printing... because I will want the registration black to be used for the registration marks on my designs and print on every output no matter what colors are chosen. I will add the name of the color for the film in that same Pantone colors so they print with each color

@b77 said in Exporting Final Art from VS for others including non-VS users:

where a RIP (usually software)…

rasterizes the artwork as spot (full opacity) or halftones, then…

Is it wishful thinking to get @vectoradmin to add a RIP to VS?

• rasterizes the artwork as spot (full opacity) or halftones, then…
• sends it to the printer (or to an imagesetter), which uses toner or laser to print it on film…
• which film then gets used directly (or after it gets developed) with the help of UV to…
• create the stencil for textiles, lithographic plates for offset printing or maybe a flexible relief plate for flexo printing.

I think separations done in VectorStyler work for what you need — if the object has an uniform, opaque black (C0 M0 Y0 K100), or an opaque spot color, exporting the separations to file will result in correct PDFs with 100% opaque colors for each ink used in the drawing.

You might however want to open each PDF and combine some objects, for complete flattening.

I'm attaching a simple VS file with black and two spot colors. If you use the settings below when printing, you should get three PDFs for all three inks used in the drawing:

0_1641215535241_spot_colors.vstyler

I convert each color layer to a dark opaque black. and then when I send this to the client, they will turn off the original art layer and the background layer and then turn on each color layer one by one and print onto films

This is what it looks like when you print films:

So the black needs to be super opaque so it can block UV light from exposing that portion of a screen coated in emulsion. The UV light hardens the exposed emulsion and the part covered by the black ink on the film can be washed off easily, creating the stencil used for screen printing

I'm open to alternative ways to fill color in empty vector shapes. That's a part of the design process that overlaps the end process with the finalizing steps and separating colors for screenprint. If @vectoradmin adds an option for that specifically, I'm all for it.

Great!