Separation Studio NXT
Import Custom Textures Walkthrough – Make Your Own Textures!
Learn by watching the video, or review the written transcript. If you still have questions submit a tech ticket, or reply back to your technician in an open ticket.
Video Transcript
Separation Studio NXT has a powerfully fun Textures feature. Quickly turn good images into great prints.
In this video I’ll show you how to save and load your own repeating patterns and texture overlays, building custom looks that’ll make your print business stand out.
Sep Studio NXT textures and patterns can be imported as an SVG file from a wide variety of vector programs. Vector programs have unique ways of developing patterns that can be saved using the SVG format. Do the research into the program you use to learn how to best accomplish your goal.
You decide the size of your artboard. It can be as small or as large as you like as long as your computer has the power to handle it. The stock texture patterns in Sep Studio are 1×1”, while the larger distress style overlays are 10×10”.
Let’s begin with a basic repeat pattern: a single vector element in the center of a square artboard. This produces a repeating image in rows spaced evenly by the amount of area between the art file and the edges of the artboard.
Empty space must be transparent. Design elements of any color will be seen by Sep Studio and treated as a part of the texture. I’ve turned on the transparency feature to show that I am using only 100% black design elements with no background.
Next, let’s look at the same image set up as a half drop pattern. It’s critical to properly place the same image at the corners of the artboard while keeping an image in the center. This produces a properly aligned half drop pattern effect. There are a few tricks to lining everything up. Research how to manage this with your vector graphics program of choice.
Screen printers love distress overlays. You can create them the same way as a pattern but using a larger artboard. In most cases, the larger artboard allows the entire distress to be easily laid over an art file within Sep Studio. You can also scale the texture in Sep Studio.
Now that we have a few files it’s time to save them for import into Sep Studio.
Sep Studio will accept vector textures and patterns from most programs saved using the SVG format. Save or export your file as an SVG file format. SVG stands for scalable vector graphics.
Texture names display best in Sep Studio when limited to 12 characters or less, avoiding the use of special characters.
Now we’re ready to import! Open an art file in Sep Studio, then open the Textures feature. Click the PLUS icon next to Categories to create and name your own custom Category. You can add and organize as many categories as you like.
Now that we have a new category, let’s add our custom patterns. Click the Plus icon, navigate to where you saved the SVG texture files, select them and click Open. That’s it, it’s that simple.
Use the mouse or the arrows on your keyboard to scroll through selections or type the first letter of the texture name.
Look at all the great things we can do now. Don’t forget to be creative or let loose a little while having fun bringing your designs to life.
Something technical to note, the textures feature knocks out portions of an image allowing the textile to show through. It not only adds interesting effects to your print, but softens the print while saving ink.
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