Screen Printers Open - A Forum for Screen Printing and Embroidery

I used to have this a few years back, but since not using Photoshop as much on my newer computer, don't remember how I did  it.
I made my standard, favorite reg mark into a brush.

Now, not only have I  forgotten how I did that, but also, even without that method, when copying and pasting the marks to their own layers, how do I make them "Registration Color" or whatever term Adobe uses, so that they print on all channel seps?




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CREATING A REGISTRATION MARK IN PHOTOSHOP:
I make the brush in channels, (intended to be a single, solid color of 100%)

1,   Using the square selection tool, I create a square about .5" x .5" and then go to the paths pallet and click on the (MAKE WORK PATH FROM SELECTION) icon that is the 3rd icon to the left of the trash can icon the paths pallet.

2, I then take the pen tool and create a center vertical line and a horizontal line and then adjust to make sure they are centered in that path of the square.

3, Taking the pencil tool, (You need hard clean solid edges on your pencil.) I choose a pixel size of 2 pixels and then click on STROKE PATH in the paths palette. (2nd icon from the left at bottom).

4, Now make a selection around the new registration mark you just created.

5, Go to the top menu bar and drag down to (DEFINE BRUSH PRESET).  It will only do this if you have a selection around it. It will also not let you do it if the selection is way too big.

6, Give it a name and then once created, make sure you SAVE BRUSH SET using the same name of the standard default set...so that when you open photoshop, the brushes contain the new registration mark.

RESISTRATION BLACK:
In Photoshop, we do not have a "registration black" color that gets applied to everything...in channels that is.  If your referring to layers only, you use the default black that is made up of percentages of CMYK or RGB to make a rich black....BUT, even that is subject to your own personal input. Each of us can create our own personal default black using the CURVES TOOL...(Control M or Command M)  and then double click on the shadow eye dropper icon, The dark one. and then ...for what your asking, you might want to put in 100% for each color of CMYK so that each of the CMYK has 100% black on each sep.
Then click YES when asked if you want to save this as your default black.

The reason we are able to even change the default color of actual black is because fr the various print methods and press preferences of the industry. Some off set presses do better with making a rich black from 80% in the K and mixtures of 80's to 90's in % for each of the other colors. Nobody even really uses 100% in each area (when doing normal off set printing of any kind for actual art. It's because it causes stacking of the colors or way too much dot gain.  If you try this and then print to your digital color printer, you will see that it's actually raised off of the paper a tad. You can feel the black sections.  This is not good for printing purposes (in the art). It may be good for registration in layers, but if you ever create art in layers using the default black, (and the art will be used for digital printing or off set printing) it is not a good practice.  I personally, only use the brush tool on my actual grayscale/spot color channels when I've completed the separation part.


Keep in mind that these registration marks will get bigger or smaller in size (based on the pixel resolution of the file). The higher the rez, the smaller the registration mark. I create mine at the average size I like to work at. Thats 300ppi. Everything stays sharp and clean at that size.

Yes, exactly what he said. Create the brush using my method ...then get them in position where you want them on a new channel.... then just select them...then basically fill it with 100% black on each color.