Question for people who print halftones w/o a RIP
I’m a flatstock printer who has been printing for a long time, but is trying simulated process for the first time and trying to up my game precision-wise. I’m good on how to convert to halftones in Photoshop. But, I’m trying to print something with a level of accuracy/precision that I haven’t dealt in before and wanted to get some input. I print films on an Epson P900, and generally deal with separations as layers in the same 300ppi grayscale PSD (with the registration marks as it’s own layer on top) and print each color/layer one at a time. I typically create halftones as bitmaps at 1200ppi and bring them back into my final SEPS file and reduce the size to 25%.
Right now I’m looking to print a 7-color print, with 6 of the colors being 50lpi simulated process halftones. When working with 35–40lpi screens, I’ve been fine converting back from 1200ppi bitmaps to 300ppi grayscale…but I’m worried I’ll lose some of the lighter detail on the higher lpi screens this way. But, if I try to print a bitmap, I can’t let the printer manage the colors, I have to use a custom ICC and have Photoshop manage the colors. Any recommendations? I attached a screenshot of the print for reference.