Color separations without Photoshop
For years, pulling seps meant owning Photoshop and a stack of plugins or actions. It doesn't anymore. Here's the standalone workflow — and why dropping Adobe actually makes it simpler.
Why skip Photoshop?
Two reasons. First, cost: an Adobe subscription is a recurring bill on top of the separation tool itself. Second, friction: Photoshop-based separation means jumping between an actions panel, channels, and manual masking. A purpose-built standalone app does the same job in one place, with controls made for separating — not photo editing.
The standalone workflow, step by step
- 1. Open the customer's art. PNG, JPG, whatever they sent — drag it in.
- 2. Clean it up. One click of AI background removal strips the background; AI upscaling rescues a low-resolution file. No clipping paths, no pen tool.
- 3. Pick the setup. Choose simulated process or spot color, light or dark garment, and the ink count — or let the AI advisor recommend all of it from the artwork.
- 4. Separate. The engine builds the plates: white underbase, each ink at the correct halftone angle, highlight white, automatic trapping.
- 5. Export. Save press-ready film and a multi-page PDF you can send straight to output.
Does standalone mean lower quality?
No. The separation math — ink unmixing, halftone screening, dot angles — is the same proven process whether it runs inside Photoshop or on its own. What you give up by leaving Adobe is the subscription and the extra steps, not the output quality.
What to look for in a standalone tool
- Both simulated process and spot color.
- Automatic white underbase and highlight white for dark garments.
- Pantone-matched ink names so your shop mixes the right ink.
- Film and PDF export that goes straight to output.
- A free trial so you can judge the seps on your own files first.
Pull seps without Adobe
AI Separations is a standalone, AI-powered color separation studio — no Photoshop, $179 one-time. Download the free trial and run a real job through it.