Converting a gradient from a spot color to a process build, hides vector elements

I have been using Illustrator for many years and consider myself very familiar with it, but recently ran into a strange issue I have never seen before.
The background element is a radial gradient with points of 0% to 50% of a spot color. The file came to me as one single layer, with the gradient in question above a vector rectangle. The rectangle shows up fine, however, until I convert the gradient from a spot to a process build at which point the box is no longer visible. The initial issue I found was that the box is beneath the gradient, but my question is why would it be visible as long as the gradient uses a spot and then disappear behind it when converted to a process build?

Version is CS5.
Part of what made the issue so confusing is that there are no effects applied. Applying the overprint feature or multiply effect don't effect the outcome either. It's only something that can be fixed by moving the gradient to a layer behind the element which is disappearing. My question is less about how to fix it (I've done that and moved on) and more about why this would happen - it seems to be a strange anomoly.
In response to the replies involving the method of color conversion:
I have used all of the methods mentioned and the end result is the same. It is starting to look to me like this is a fluke that happened with this particular file and that it is not something that can be duplicated intentionally.

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How can I take a spot color from the Pantone Swatches Library and convert it for use in a RGB document? Thanks.

kat,
You may:
1) Click the Pantone Swatch, or a path to which it is applied;
2) Switch to RGB (for RGB, CMYK for CMYK) in the Color palette/panel, and ;
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The setup that I'm using is a G5 Mac OSX, version 10.4.11. The InDesign application is CS3, version 5.0.3. The fonts are loaded into Extensis Font Reserve, server 1.7.4. The InDesign document has a text box using 2 different font sets. One set, Helvetica Neue, uses the rgb spot color. The other one, a mixed set of New Century Schoolbook, is used for a paragraph which is process black. When deleting the rgb spot color from the swatches and converting it to process black, the New Century Schoolbook reflows which had already been process black.
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If you change the color back and then back again, do you get more reflows?
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Spot color questions

I'm helping someone prepare a logo for the printer. The file he gave me uses two spot colors. There are two issues that concern me.
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2. When creating a gradient from one spot color to the other,the intermediate color turned out kind of a muddy grey. To remedy this, he again layered the spot colors on top of each other and created a black/white transparency mask on the top object so the underlying color would show through. On screen at least, this looks much better, but again, will it cause problems for the printer?
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That should be OK, so long as the logo is not converted to process colours when placed into another file, like an InDesign document. For cases such as that a process colour only version of the logo should be prepared.
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Here are a few gradients. At the top, a simple gradient from blue to red. Below that, I duplicated the same appearance by stacking a red to white gradient over a white to blue gradient, with the gradient on top set to Overprint Fill in the Appearance panel. This will produce the same result. Below that are two stacked rectangles with solid fills. The red rectangle on top is masked with a gradient, like in the file your colleague made. All three of these will produce the same output, but the simpler one, the one less likely to cause headaches later on, is the one on top.
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Hi,
I'm trying to convert all spot color swatches to process, but for some strange reason, some weird behavior occures.
First I tried this piece of code...
app.activeDocument.colors.everyItem().properties = {space:ColorSpace.CMYK, model:ColorModel.PROCESS};
After running the script, the color icon changes, indicating the colorspace/model is changed. But when checking the color in detail, it's still a spot color.
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function convertColors2Process(){
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Now, the color thumbnail changes to the new color, but again, when checking the color. It's still a pantone color with the old values.
No error occures when running the script and I'm able to change the color manualy in Indesign.
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Hi Larry,
I've tried using ...
function convertColors2Process(){
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tell application "Adobe Illustrator"
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But this script obviously doesn't work. From what I can tell, the fill color simply returns the tint of the item, not the name of it. I can't find anything that returns the name of a spot color so I can set the correct corresponding color. In the above example, I made the color obviously changed so I could visually see the result.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated! I'm a first time poster here.
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tell application "Adobe Illustrator"
          tell current document
                    set theList to every path item
                    set sw to every swatch
                    repeat with i from 1 to count of sw
                              set swname to name of item i of sw
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I have Freehand Mxa on my PC. I created a couple of rectangles and filled with two Pantone colors from my swatch pallet.
I exported to pdf and the spot colors converted to cymk. Shucks! How do I stop that?
(When I print directly to my Adobe Distiller print driver the spot colors are retained as they should in my pdf.)
In the Freehand export function there is a setup dialog box just below the "cancel" button. When that opens there is only a drop down button allowing conversion to cmyk and cmyk/rgb. So, I am guessing that is not where I can tell Freehand to leave my spots alone.
What am I doing wrong?
I was going to attach the small test file but the system did allow. Hope my description is enough to render a solution.
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The only thing you're doing wrong is using FH's PDF export. It creates PDF files that are adequate for viewing online or printing to composite inkjet printers, but it doesn't support spot colors.
There are many more reasons why you shouldn't use FH's PDF export for print work. See this technote for limitations of PDF export.
http://go.adobe.com/kb/ts_tn_13496_en-us
When you need to retain spot colors, print to a Postscript file and Distill.

Converting CYMK to spot color?

Alright, i just read the 'how to get help quickly', and will attempt to not let my panic show through too much:
I designed graphics to go into my college's literary magazine. I used only two colors: brown and green (8dc63f and 603913). However, last week he informed us (the magazine production people) that RGB wasn't acceptable, since he was going to print in something called 'spot color'. Never heard of it before, but after reasearching, I think I have a vague grasp on it: basically instead of CYMK printing process, he's just going to have two plates, one with each color, and stamp them on the pages (like screen printing). That's fine, but I don't understand how it relates to my files. So we sent the psd files to the printer's "photoshop specialist" and then yesterday I was informed that there was no way to seperate the colors into pantone plates, and that either the book was now going to be blank (thankfully the cover is going to be printed seperately in CYMK so that's fine), or we could use clipart (!!thanks for discrediting a semester of my work), or I could learn to use illustrator and redesign the whole book by monday.
I panic, obviuosly, because after downloading the trial version of illustrator I realized that it's actually nothing like working in photoshop (where's my tablet sensitivity? this is NOTHING like 'illustrating'), and at the end of last night's terror, this is all i could produce: http://img576.imageshack.us/img576/2993/illustrator.jpg
Now for reference, the image I originally made in photoshop looks like this (when placed on a brown background to simulate paper): http://img829.imageshack.us/img829/7015/photoshopf.jpg
I am very confused, because I don't understand why the printing company can seperate the illustrator file into two color plates, but not the photoshop file. Both use the same colors (Pantone 375 and Pantone 161 C, I've learned). I have no clue how to save ANYTHING in 'spot format', the only difference between photoshop and illustrator is that I can click on the pantone swatch in illustrator.
Obviously I'm ignorant and confused, and I appologise for that, since it only makes this situation worse (who knows if I'm using the right terminology).
tl;dr:
I have a whole bunch of psd files that need to be converted to something called 'spot color format'
the images are graphics to be placed in an indesign file, not to be printed on their own, so really, they have to be in the spot color format.
Is there any way in reality to maintain the quality of these images and convert them into 'spot color format'?
I'm still trying to understand illustrator (I'm really a painter, not a designer -- wtf is a vector), but would love to convert the psd files I already have into something usable. the printer people didn't know how, I don't know how (or even understand the issue), but maybe you will?

I tried this with the image you posted, so I can describe in detail the steps.
From the image menu choose Duplicate to keep the original for reference.
From the Image menu choose Mode > CMYK Color.
In the Channels palette, delete (by dragging to the trash there) all channels except the Yellow and Black channels.
Double click the icon of the Black channel and in the window that opens click on the color swatch, then in the next window that opens click the Color Libraries button, and when the next window opens type quickly on your keyboard 161, make sure the desired color is picked and press OK on this and previous window to apply.
Repeat the same for the Yellow channel but choose 375.
Select the 161 channel (former Black) and press Ctrl + L to open Levels. Drag the middle arrow of Input Levels referring to the original to get similar darkness (to me around 0.30 looks similar shade). Press OK to apply and close.
Hold Ctrl and click on the icon of the 375 (former Yellow) channel to load its shading as a selection, and press Ctrl + Shift + I to invert the selection.
Make sure the 161 (former Black) channel is selected and press Ctrl + L to open Levels again. Move the right (white) arrow of the Output Levels (at the bottom) until the background matches in brightness the background of the original (to me 150 looks similar).
That's basically it based on my quick try with your image. This example should help you understand the basic idea and from there if you like, you can further play with the image if you feel you can make it any better with these two colors.
Regarding Spot colors, the idea is that a printing press uses 4 color plates (in Photoshop represented as the four CMYK channels when the image is in CMYK color mode) to print all possible process colors by mixing these four colors (inks). Spot colors are pure inks in cans and each spot color (ink) requires its own plate. Sometimes people print 4 process color plus an additional spot color for achieving a special effect like gold ink or pure corporate color to ensure color consistency which may not be as good when using the four colors mix. But very often, spot colors are used for printing with less than 4 plates to save money and sometimes for artistic effect with special inks.
Following the above example converts the CMYK document to Multichannel Color mode and you have only a few file formats available for saving in the Save As options. From these, practical ones are DCS and PSD files. Both are OK for printing but you may want to confirm with your printer. However if you want to place Multichannel image in programs like Illustrator or inDesign you have to use DCS.

Converting CMYK colors to spot color?

My publisher/printer requests a "hi-res pdf" as camera ready copy for a book I'm writing which will be printed in 2 colors (black and a spot color shade of blue). The pages have images from various sources and text with CMYK approximations of that blue which I'd like to convert to the spot color. Is there a convenient way to do this sort of operation through "preflight" or convert colors - so the final document has only K of CMYK and the spot color?

Yes, see my reply here.

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Dear Andy
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Spot color from Photoshop to Illustrator

Man, this used to be not a big deal. I usually print in CMYK, but I am laying out bz cards that need to be black and pantone 200u, just 2 color. When I transfer the logo from PS to Illustrator the pantone 200 changes values. I tried putting it in ID and it changes values there too. The printer needs it to be pantone 200 and the press will print it that color. It is a jpeg file. Do I convert to CMYK or should it still be RGB? How can I import it into Illustrator and it stay pantone 200. I'm not sure of the values of the color now because in every application it is different. Where can I find the values? Years ago you would give it to the printer in black for spot on different layers and they would handle it.
hear are my 20 questions...
how can I import spot from PS to Illustrator
The values of pantone 200u
leave rgb or cmyk
jpeg is this ok or do I need to change it to another format

Treza500 wrote:
how can I import spot from PS to Illustrator
Duotone/ Multichannel files (TIFF, PSD) where each channel is a spot color. Off the top of my head I'm not sure if JPEG even supports this, but it may.
Mylenium

Converting tif with clipping path to solid spot color CS3

There must be a better way to do this, I need to make an opaque white spot color overprint the silo'd 4/C image (this is for a window cling). In the past I would duplicate the tif, convert to grayscale, fill with black, duplicate the placed tif, re-link to the new grayscale tif and color it to the spot color. This works fine, but is there a way to simply duplicate the placed tif, delete the image and fill the path with a spot color? TIA

Absolutely. First copy the image and then paste in place. Right click and choose convert clipping path to frame. Delete the image from that frame and fill it with color.
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Convert color to spot color (if it exists)

Hi
I have a script I've cobbled together (apologies if it looks cumbersome!), which searches for black fills/strokes and text, and converts them to a spot color. I need to adapt it so that if it doesn't find an object matching the criteria, then it carries on, rather than stopping with an error:
tell application "Adobe Illustrator"
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--make spot color, name it apple red
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Appreciate any help.

Use "Adjust Color" from the "Tools" menu and move the "Saturation" slider all the way to the left.

Converting a gradient from a spot color to a process build, hides vector elements

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