Reduce number of colors for print

[imsammyd]

I have an image I like and I wanted it printed to a tshirt. seems I have to pick 4 or 5 colors for the screening, this includes black and greys.

First, I posterize the image and it gets that nice illustrated look. But, then the actual limiting of colors, I can't figure out.

If I save for the web and pick GIF and reduce the number of colors to 4, it produces the exact effect I am looking for. The problem is that I want to preserve the nice smooth transparency and don't really want to save it as a gif first. Is there a way to apply a filter that does the exact same thing as the create gif for the web dialogue? Is there a way besides going into the gif dialogue to see how many colors are in the image?

Thanks in advance

[jerryb]

hi,
i sometimes wonder that myself..... about reducing rgb color without going to gif....

now i am not sure... but this tutorial may work for your image.......
you probably have to modify it to fit your needs but i think it will work for you... let me know how it works out..
http://www.digiretus.com/tippek/cikkiro.php?SORSZAM=9

I have an image I like and I wanted it printed to a tshirt. seems I have to pick 4 or 5 colors for the screening, this includes black and greys.

First, I posterize the image and it gets that nice illustrated look. But, then the actual limiting of colors, I can't figure out.

If I save for the web and pick GIF and reduce the number of colors to 4, it produces the exact effect I am looking for. The problem is that I want to preserve the nice smooth transparency and don't really want to save it as a gif first. Is there a way to apply a filter that does the exact same thing as the create gif for the web dialogue? Is there a way besides going into the gif dialogue to see how many colors are in the image?

Thanks in advance

[imsammyd]

I saw that same tutorial, but there are actually tons of colors in that final product. Each slight variation and tint produces a different one. Even in gif 256 you see loss. My final product looks like a cartoon almost

[jerryb]

hi,
mmm interesting problem.... although i am not sure about what y ou mean by smooth transparency.... i am not sure if you mean simi transparent.. if you do then normally that can't be done with gif although there is a trick but i don't think it would work that well with your project...

how about going to image>mode>index and reducing the color leve there?
also try the different dither types?

default is 256 but you can take it down to a much lower number if desired... and then afterwards either save/or change mode, in gif or png or jpg...

I saw that same tutorial, but there are actually tons of colors in that final product. Each slight variation and tint produces a different one. Even in gif 256 you see loss. My final product looks like a cartoon almost

[imsammyd]

with indexing, you can only do a minimum of 9, but that is very close to what I want to do. With the transparency, Along the edge of the shape is a very smooth partially transparent edge. When I turn it into a gif, I loose that.

Thanks for your help guys, but I think I am going to ditch the screen printing option that I was going for and do a full color digital print instead.

[jerryb]

hi,
i experimented alittle with and depending on the image and the other setting it varies how low you can go i was able on one image to get to just 2 colors...

for gif.... normally that true you can't have a translucient which I think is what your were after.... this link is a tutorial on making a gif translucient..
http://home.myfairpoint.net/hannigan7/lucyinthesky.html probably not suffiencient for you project but it may come in handy at other times

anyway good luck

with indexing, you can only do a minimum of 9, but that is very close to what I want to do. With the transparency, Along the edge of the shape is a very smooth partially transparent edge. When I turn it into a gif, I loose that.

Thanks for your help guys, but I think I am going to ditch the screen printing option that I was going for and do a full color digital print instead.