switching from Photoshop CC to Illustrator CC 2019 1

Do you have a small sample file you could attach to demonstrate the problem?

Thank you, SpamJim, for taking the time to help me. I will attach a simple 3 color (3 strikes) book that we had screen printed a couple of years ago. the files I am trying to work with now are 6 or 7 strikes, but this should be enough to give me the idea of what to do. I have not converted it to CMKY just incase that is the wrong thing to do. Thanks again, GracieGrace

The matter of CMYK is confusing me. Does each strike in your file use its own color ink or are you printing the strikes with the 4 CMYK (cyan, magenta, yellow, black) inks? For the sample you presented, it is not typical to be working in CMYK if you're not printing with CMYK ink. You're probably wanting to utilize "spot inks" in Illustrator.

Attached an Illustrator file to demonstrate ink separations. Observe the "swatches" and "layers" panels in Illustrator to see how the art is likely prepared for screen printing. Either or both methods could be used to separate strikes.

Oh.... that looks like what the printer would want. to answer your first question, yes, each color does use its own strike, and the only reason I chose CMKY is because of the choices Photoshop gave me to convert to: Bitmap, Greyscale, RGB, CMKY or Lab Color. I chose CMKY only because I thought that was what Illustrator preferred to work in.... but that was an uneducated guess.

But I like what you have done with the Irish Blessings art. Except - why does each separate black mark get its own compound path. that can be very complicated with some of my art. the shamrock was one of the simplest ones.

Any way, I think you have given me a 'path' to follow (pun intended). I will see where it leads me. Thank you so much. After 40 hrs of going in circles, I have a direction. Thank you!

why does each separate black mark get its own compound path

Click to expand...

I suspect you're expanding the nested layers in the "layers" panel. You typically only need to look at the primary layers. It is common to have hundreds or thousands of nested layers on more complex art.

The text in my sample is roughly converted from your art. It is not live text. If you compose text in Illustrator, the text block will appear as a single layer.

Thank you. That is a lot less to worry about. I had to put that project away for awhile, but I will get back to it. Thank you for all your help. Gracie