Earlier this year Mike Scrutton of Adobe stood on a small stage at FESPA in Berlin to talk about the needs of designers in the digital textile space. The challenge, as Scrutton defined it, was that building patterns was time consuming. Fitting, turning segments, and setting colors for elements was time consuming. Changes required going back to the original files and making changes, and then pulling another proof. The growth of fast fashion and fast décor has put a laser focus on the need for faster time-to-market and a different design-to-product requirement than traditional design in the Textile space. Add the word “digital” to anything and the requirement becomes to turn projects around faster and with more efficiency. At FESPA there was the hint that something was coming, from Adobe, that would address the needs of digital textile designers. In fact, something so cool, it might be of use to anyone who designs patterns.
Roll the calendar forward a few months and Adobe has now released the public beta for Project Paras, a new plug-in for Adobe Photoshop CC that makes the process of design prints easier. From adding repeats to changing sizes of elements, the Project Paras plug-in includes tools for previewing, editing, defining separations, and setting colorways. By keeping every element editable up until you save the final manufacturing-ready file, textile designers can get the design just right without the usual rounds of testing, re-editing, and testing again.
Source: Adobe Project Paras
This public beta, which will be active until April 2019, comes on the heels of listening to designers, speaking with digital textile producers and traditional textile producers, as well as watching how designers use Photoshop today. After some internal testing with focus groups, repeating patterns came to the top as one element that would speed time to production. Need to fill a gap or adjust an element size? The Project Paras tool set lets you flow your designs beyond the edges and wraps them to the other side of your tile.
For designers needing color separations, the Project Paras Plug-in has you covered. The tool set makes it easy to select elements and change the color characteristics. Yes, you can use a named color for each separation! The pre-release edition currently supports only RGB and uses between 3 and 8 inks to generate colorways using Adobe Color Swatches and the Adobe Color Library. And, when you are ready for production you can save your work in the formats that meet your needs, including the XMP metadata!
Screen Shot Adobe Photoshop CC Project Paras Plug-in
Source: Adobe Project Paras
If you are curious about this new tool, go to Adobe.com/go/ProjectParas to sign up for the Beta. You will need a license for Adobe Photoshop CC to get started. Now you are up-to-date on one of the new tools from Adobe. As more companies install digital textile solutions, and more designers recognize the opportunity that grows with fast fashion and fast décor, having experience with this type of tool can be a differentiator for designers. Once you download the beta, keep up on the latest on Twitter using the hashtags #ProjectParas or #AdobeDigitalTextile for great examples.