Anyone able to help me to print poly plates from Illustrator CS4?

I am brand new to CS4 as of today I have done some reading but cannot seem to find any help it seems to be different from real world to what I read something is always different. I am new to offset printing also I need to print my plates to an HP 5100 in CMYK and cannot seem to print each plate out seperating the colors can someone please help me?

 

Click "Print" choose "Output" where it says Mode, choose "in rip separations" pick the resolution (you can't go higher than 1200 dpi/100 lpi for a device you're using) you may also disable output of each of CMYK channels.

 

Thank you for replying. OK I did this and notice that when done "in rip seperations" everything prints as process black and every page out of the four print exactly the same but when I choose "seperations" it prints each plate by color bk, cy, mg, yellow so am I missing something with the in rip ?. and Thank you!

 

That means that your image consists of 100% of cyan, 100% of magenta, 100 of yellow and 100% of black

 

Ok interesting so i use my four colors with the same plate in other words your saying? Cause each plate is the same no knowing which is for which color anyway. I dont understand how the same plate for each color works? Would u be so kind to tell me how that works?

 

can i ask why you are trying to print colour process on poly plates... bad idea mate, use metal for process and poly for odd jobbing as i call it

 

I use InDesign for all pre-press work and it's super easy to print poly plates from there. I'm not sure why people use Illustrator for that stuff, it sounds torturous.

If you place the file in InDesign, you'll need to set up a print preset for your platemaker - the HP 5000 / 5100 has a max sheet size of 12 x 18.5, so set it up like that, and you'll have to mess with the settings to see where it's best to place the image. If you're using an AB Dick 9810 or something similar, dead center works well. Don't forget to go to "Output" to select Separations, then click "Printer" to set your quality to 1200dpi. InDesign does have a glitch where once you set the quality, it goes back to CMYK instead of Composite Gray or Separations. Just make sure you set it back. Set your line screen, and then click on or off the separations you want to print.

Hope this helps.

- Lantz