2 color gradients for offset printing

i am setting up a job for 2 color offset and have 2 PMS colors. I have some artwork that has a gradient from one of the PMS colors to the other. Is this going to be something the printer can deal with, or do I have to do something to set it up for separations for the printer. I am stuck thinking how easy it is in 4 color, but haven't had to deal with this using only 2 colors. Thanks in advance for any information.

James: You're the kind of client I prefer! The more educated you are, the better off we both are! You have more tools under your belt and I have more productivity dealing with clean files. I applaud you fostering this relationship, it's NOT the norm!
And like you, I do wish for better things with every version of ANY program I work with. Bravo!
Scott: I never said FH had inherent output issues. I've imaged MANY FH generated EPS files not native FH files (which was my point in an earlier statement that I may not have conveyed well).
I also agree that the user has much to do with the success of any prepress job (though Corel's crappy Postscript was their own doing.) The issue, historically, was that Corel's suite was a lot of "bang for the buck" to businesses to cheap to pay for professional design. So they bought Corel and foisted on their secretaries (or gave it to their kids) and had "in-house design". (This is the same cause of the Publisher plague). So you had many amateur files coming from Corel but also the occasional pro was using it and using it well. (I've designed files in Corel 4 that I never had a problem ripping!)
Doug: "Graphic Find and Replace" does NOT make FH better than AI. Blending spot colors is a deficiency? Even today I caution people to use Blends sparingly. Gradient Meshes provide Spot to Spot blending capabilities. Do I say it's perfect and the most intuitive tool? No. But in the hands of those who give it enough time it is a masterful tool unequalled in FH. But it doesn't make AI better - it's just a tool other programs don't have. What about the Automation interface? When FH was Macromedia's, it's scripting dictionary was paltry. AI supports Applescript, Visual Basic, and Javascript. I build front to backend workflows for AI using various combinations of these. This doesn't make it a better program than FH - though it may be superior in this regard.
As far as conventions go, FH's Pen Tool is what YOU are comfortable with. You see it FROM YOUR PERSPECTIVE. I have an associate that is by far the fastest and most accurate user of ANY Pen Tool I have EVER seen and he uses AI as his weapon of choice.
If you drop the qualifiers "flexible, elegant" (which merely describe YOUR feelings about it) you end up with one versus four. Appears to be a slam-dunk to you, I'm sure. But in practice, by a given individual, it may appear to make more sense and be faster than your experience. (Just like the cry for multiPage support in AI. I think this is a horribly bad idea but from many users' perspectives this is a must-have.)
I just don't understand why these forums become a continual p*ssing match between FH and AI users?!?!

Similar Messages

  • How can I export to PDF for Offset printing including color and grayscale photo's?

    After reading dozens of forum, I still don’t found the answer.
    I made a photobook with full-colur and B/W photos for Offset printing. I want the B/W to be in grayscale to avoid color possible color shades. It seems InDesign doesn’t support grayscale, the images become way to dark. Even with exporting without any colour conversion or destination and/or including original colour profiles, the grayscale pictures are being exported to dark to PDF.
    How can I export to PDF for Offset printing including color and grayscale photo’s?

    Yes, the Photoshop & ID CMYK working spaces are the same
    This can get difficult because the 3 programs handle soft proofing differently.
    The working spaces don't matter, it's the document profile(s) that manage the preview. So here is the same grayscale image placed in ID on top and PS on the bottom. I've set my Photoshop info to show the doc profile in the lower left corner. I can see my InDesign's Document CMYK profile in my Proof Setup (the Working CMYK is different and isn't being used). Both profiles are effectively the same Coated FOGRA39 (Black Ink FOGRA in the case of PS).
    But the previews don't match because I have Overprint turned off, so the InDesign preview is Gamma 2.2 or a "screen" media preview.
    If I turn on Overprint preview I get a match because I'm soft proofing for print:

  • Multi color gradient for touch and selected color of spark mobile list

    multi color gradient for touch and selected color of spark mobile list
    how to get dat?

    or how about a bitmap as the background for the touch and selected color for the items in a list.

  • How to get black text in Aperture for offset printing?

    I have a lot of text in my Aperture Books.
    60 pages is like 300USD plus from Apple store!
    Offset printing for 1000 copies is 3 USD each (and I am happy with that lower quality).
    This is what my printer says:
    The files for offset print generally should be prepared slightly different
    then for digital printing.
    I'm talking about the text.
    Each black text (on the cover, inside pages, numbers of pages) should be
    prepared in one black colour. Now is separated on 4 colours. Of course we can print it as it is but I'm sure that the final effect will
    be not good. The black letters will be "fuzzy".
    Is it possible to change some settings? (I get the same in Pages when I create PDF:s)
    Help!!!
    Stefan
    Do I have to learn Indesign?

    StefanGson wrote:
    I tried to save as PDF-X and then I opened the generated PDF and if I use Acrobat
    Advanced->Print Production and Output Preview and hold the cross over my black text I still get values for CMYK
    I guess thats how you check it?
    Hi, Stefan
    I would suggest talking directly with the person you're going to deliver to and ask them exactly how they want it delivered, for example, fonts, pdf type... they usually have a spec sheet you deliver to and then pick the PDF from the print options in Aperture.
    victor

  • Test color for offset printing cs4

    I often have to create black and white publication which are then sent to a professional offset printer. However, the images (mainly photos) are often much darker after printing. I lighten the images in photoshop via curves but it's a guess as to how each image will print. I'd like to be able to find a set formula so multiple people can edit and place images with consistent results.
    Has anyone had this problem? Is there a way to preview how a publication will look after offset printing?

    i agree with both of the above posts. there's no "magic bullet" which will get every picture correct in every circumstance, it depends on:
    the quality of the press being used; (is it a rusting POS with spent rollers and blankets, or is it a new machine with not many "miles" on it)
    the resolution of the platesetter (assuming the artwork is being commercially printed using CTP);
    the screen ruling that the printer is making the halftone dots, or if the printer is using FM/stochastic screening;
    the finish of the stock (coated, uncoated, laser-paper, newsprint, matt, silk)
    the brightness of the stock
    there is a calculation to work out the shades of gray given the DPI of the platesetter (not the photoshop file!) and the desired LPI of the press. it is:
    ((DPI/LPI) squared) + 1 = shades of gray.
    so for example, 2400 DPI @ 150 LPI = 257 shades of gray.
    however, 2400 DPI @ 200 LPI = 145 shades of gray. so while the dots are finer, there are less shades of gray as a result.
    ALSO, while a platesetter can generate fine dots at the correct screen ruling, it also depends how well the ink absorbs paper. if the paper absorbs ink too well (such as newsprint) the dot shape will grow (spread) and this gives "dot gain". this happens on coated stock too but to a lesser degree.
    so ultimately the printer will be the go-to person in the OP's situation. i hope the mechanics behind it explain why asking the printer is the key here.

  • Using Photoshop for offset printing projects (packaging) - simple or complex?

    Hi,
    I'm about to start a new project. It's a product package (box).
    Normally, I would do this in Illustrator. However, I was wondering if I could do it all in Photoshop by saving the final output as a PDF.
    I've only ever used Photoshop in 4-color process scenarios and numeric printing. In other words, "sky's the limit" scenarios, where all I need to care about is how it looks on the screen. I'm not sure how to attack this from the perspective of offset printing.
    I've checked with the printer, and he says a CMYK PDF is fine. But that the basic rules of offset still apply.
    First, is it realistic of me to envision doing this box in Photoshop? It would really save me a lot of time not having to switch back and forth from PS to AI the way I usually do in projects like these.
    How would I go about telling a text layer to use a specific offset pantone, or pure black, for instance?
    Am I making too big a deal out of something simple, or am I being unreasonably simplistic regarding something more complex?

    ...or am I being unreasonably simplistic regarding something more complex?
    Probably yes (no offense). Just a few random thoughts:
    - you can't do die, glue and fold lines in PS as you can't do specific other custom print marks required for stamping, foil coating, varnishing or whatever
    - process colors in PS are limited to multichannel/ duotones/ tritones and since they will be raster, they will never print sharp, especially when printing on something like uncoated C or G flute
    - similarly, barcodes and other required markings may not print correctly
    So no, there is possibly no way you can do this in just PS. In particular the cutting part will require a complementary EPS/ PDF based on genuine vector data and it really doesn't hurt to have proper alignement crosshairs, either.
    Mylenium

  • Resolution of Pages PDF for offset printing

    I'm making a brochure for my wife's company. I've already made it in Photoshop (on my PC). I've duplicated it in Pages (tri-fold template). The pdf made in PS is about 25MB. The pdf made by pages is about 1.3MB. The printer wants files that are 350ppi. And now that I think of it, they also want them in the CMYK color space. Pretty sure Pages won't do that. Anyway, anyone made a document that was printed by a service (offset press)?
    Dave
    in Maine

    I'd agree with what Peter says but for a possible few points.
    1. As you have calibrated monitors, you presumably have a spectrophotometer and a monitor calibration / monitor characterisation package. The package should autoinstall the ICC profile for the state of the display and set the ColorSync Utility and the Display control panel correctly. However, take care that you don't override these settings manually. The typical mistake is to use the display profile as the profile for colour correction. The reason this is a mistake is that your display typically has a smaller colour space than your offset printing condition, except if you are printing on lowend gray newsprint or lowend gray magazine paper as in US SWOP. For any half-decent printing gamut, use a larger colour correction space such as ECI-RGB or AdobeRGB or if you are digital then PhotoGamutRGB by the pro photographers in Germany. If you can't define a colour in the colour correction space you can't define the colour in the output space - you have to have the colour to be able to print the colour.
    2. In using the PDF/X-3 workflow, check with your printer for the bleed box and trim box. If you don't have to have transparency, try staying away from it in your design. The idea is that PDF is output to a determinate imaging area for the page itself, which you define in Page Setup, but printing processes have different needs of additional space and this additional space is customisable. If you do have transparency, set the transparency flattening appropriately in the PDF/X-3 dialogue. Finally, talk to your printer about the printing condition and determine if there is a house printing condition for which an ICC printing profile is available or if the shop supports ISO 12647 in which case you can get prebuilt ICC profiles at www.eci.org and the measurement data itself to build your own gamut mapping and black generation at www.color.org which is the home of the International Color Consortium.
    Probably a bit rambling, sorry about that.
    hh

  • What color profile for digital printing?

    Under color settings in InDesign i only find profiles for offset press but what color profile should i use if i want my document printed on a digital printer?

    indewarry wrote:
    i just find it strange that there is no 'standard' profile for printing for digital press. All profiles are for conventional press.
    Like conventional presses, digital equipment uses a range of inks and papers, so there is no single profile that would always be correct, and the press operator can often calibrate the equipment to one of several differnt standards. I use a printer that offers both offset and digital (using an HP Indigo) printing, and all of their equipment is calibrated to GRAcol.
    The fact that the printer couldn't tell you the correct profile is a big red flag shouting that they don't know anything about color management. Don't expect good color fidelity, and insist on a contract proof.

  • Color settings for Photoshop prints

    Not sure if anyone can help - I'm still working with CS2 but perhaps my problem has a simple answer.
    I did a lot of printing several years ago but had to leave it behind for a period. I'm trying to get bak into it but i'm having trouble with my color settings. My prints are coming out with rather garish or exagerated. My brain is somewhat disconnected of what I need to be paying attenion to. Anybody with advice on where to start again?

    Hi Petyer-2, welcome to the forum.
    Chances are it's one or more color-management issues (having to do with profiles, monitor setup, etc.)
    Are you printing yourself or sending the images out? 
    If the former, what color-management settings are you choosing in the Photoshop Print dialog?
    If the latter, what color profile are you saving the images in that you're sending out for printing?  What does the lab want?
    Is your monitor calibrated and profiled?  What profile is associated with the monitor?
    Feel free to put a representative image up here if you'd like a judgment on whether the image itself is garish/exaggerated.
    -Noel

  • Color profile for ordering prints from Apple

    Hy,
    I'm due for ordering prints tomorrow from Apple, my screen is hardware calibrated but can anyone tell me which profile to choose for softproofing when ordering prints from Apple ( I live in Belgium, print order come from Ireland )???
    Thanx

    Adobe RGB has worked best for me. Otherwise prints from Ireland have tended to be dark
    M.

  • Best Practices for setting up InDesign Effects for offset printing.

    I'm new to the forum so I hope I'm posting my question in the correct place.  I'm a prepress supervisor for a company that receives most of it's work as PDFs exported from InDesign.  I notice on more and more work (proabably 75%) our customers are setting up their effects in InDesign.  We receive files exported from CS3 and CS4, mac and pc.  Our prepress system is Prinergy 4.1.  We have job options that we recommend customers use for PDF export directly out of the applicaton and we are currently testing PDFX4.  The problem is we don't have consistent results with our ripped files, we often see artifacts around items that use certain effects (such as the bevel and emboss effect), many times the customer uses a drop shadow along with the bevel and emboss and we see "pixelation" or low-resolution "jagginess."   Files that use feathering often drop part of the feathered image and if black text is touching an effect it will process out to CMYK. If we have the InDesign file it sometimes works to change how the effect is applied (text, object, fill), sometimes we have to flatten on export or write a PDFX4.  If we are working with the customer's PDF we often have to flatten at the rip, save the PDF as a postscript file or request the native files to troubleshoot.  Are there guidelines to applying effects in Indesign?  We would like to try to document for our customers recommended processes for creating files.
    Thanks!

    Our strongest recommendation at Adobe for best PDF print publishing workflow results is to use the PDF/X-4 settings for exporting PDF from InDesign 6 and saving PDF from Adobe Illustrator 14. (The "draft PDF/X-4" support of InDesign 5 and Illustrator 13 was based on a draft version of the ISO PDF/X-4 specification that was significantly modified prior to final ISO standard ratification and publication!) PDF/X-4 provides for a reliable workflow in which live transparency and color management is carried in the PDF file itself; no "flattening" of transparency effects or color conversions occur until as late as possible in the print workflow, preferably at the RIP itself!
    PDF/X-4 is an excellent choice for PDF if you have a workflow which uses the Adobe PDF Print Engine technology in the RIP. In your case, Prinergy 4.1 does in fact provide Adobe PDF Print Engine technology. Make sure that (1) you enable the Adobe PDF Print Engine as opposed to CPSI and (2) you don't refine the pages as part of the Prinergy workflow (that process ruins your PDF by converting to PostScript and converting back to PDF - not something you want to do for a reliable PDF workflow with transparency and color management).
    Note that even if you do use PDF/X-4 and properly configure your PDF workflow system / RIP, it is still incumbent upon the designer to produce reasonable content. Just because "it looks good on the screen" (additive screen color) doesn't mean that it will reasonably translate to ink on substrate (subtractive printing color). Adobe does provide guidelines for use of transparency and color on its website for use by designers to guide them.
              - Dov

  • Color Management for Epson printer using Photoshop Elements 6

    I have consistently dark prints when using my new Epson workhorse 1100. It prints fine from iPhoto but not from Photoshop Elements 6. The Epson people say it's an Adobe problem. The Adobe people won't help, as it's not under warranty. I am interested in settings in PSE6 or on my Mac OSX. Or, what's a profile and how do I set it? Thanks!!

    Yes, I've tried all of the options: Printer manages color, PSE manages color. All are the same dark prints.
    On another conversation on this forum, I read the following. Very discouraging to think that Adobe knows of this problem but won't give me any tech support because too much time has lapsed.
    I don't know what "plugs" are--sounds like this user figured out a way around it.
    Any advice?
    Thanks!
    Fran
    Re: Color mismatch EpsonR800 and Elements 6
    Adobe has admitted that there is a color management issue with PSE 6 for Mac. I have an Epson R1900 and I am now getting acceptable color-managed prints by allowing the Epson Printer driver to manage color management (ie; color management in PSE 6 turned off). The Epson Photoshop Plug In also works well with PSE6 and ICC profiles; however, I have yet to solve 2 problems with this particular plug in: (1) How to get the program to capture 3rd party ICC profiles and (2) how to print borderless prints. If anyone has seen a user guide for this particular plug in, I would be grateful to know how to download it.

  • Black and white tritone for offset printing

    Hi,
    Im about to print a B&W book, and want to do it with three different inks (black, a dark worm grey, and a light grey) I prepared the files in photoshop in Mode/duotone and choose the three colors.. Id did some test with the offset press, I got quite good results, but I noticed that the black and dark grey are working in the highlights, which generate a grain. I want only the light grey working in the highlights. How can I control this?  Should I work the duotones curves?
    Thanks!

    Yes, the curves will help.  You can also determine how the colors overprint.  The Black and Dark Gray curves could look like a "bell" curve, while the Light Gray would appear as an inverted bell curve ( if that makes sense ).  You will see results as you adjust the curves.  Good luck, sounds iike a nice project.

  • Enlarging images for offset printing

    Hi guys,
    some images I have to include to the project has insuficient size {sometimes less than half {125 DPI instead of 300}. What's your opinion when considering the best way to enlarge them. Should I just place them to ID and without any pardons export the final PDF or is better to enlarge each one manually? I am just curious to hear your experiences.
    Thank you

    MikeWenzloff wrote:
    The DPI doesn't matter much. What does matter is the pixel dimensions. Resizing upwards in ID will make the images fuzzy. More fuzzy the larger you increase their on-page size.
    So if the images are being sized downwards after placing them, the effective DPI increases. Sized larger and the effective DPI is decreased.
    If it at all matters, there are two reasonable options. One costs, does a little better job: a plug-in for Photoshop. The other is free: Smilla Image Enlarger. Smilla will do a pretty decent job as long as you are beginning with a quality image and are not unduly sizing upwards.
    Either way, you would do so on each image. That is unless you are beginning with images that can be resized exacly the same amount without changing the WxH ratio. Then Smilla can process a queue.
    Take care, Mike
    Thank you Mike,
    sorry, I was not clear enough — I was talking about Effective DPI. Thank you for your time!..

  • 2-color Gradient - Separations

    Hi, all.  I'm back with more silly questions about gradients for offset printing.  I'm working with a logo that features yellow streaks that fade into the solid blue shape over which they are superimposed, like so ...
    At some point, I'll need to produce separations for offset printing.  What's the best way to set up those yellow streaks for this purpose?  I'm courting the following options, but I'm not really sure of the correct approach.
    1 - streaks as solid yellow lines fading from 100% to 0% opacity laid over solid blue
    2 - streaks as yellow to blue gradient over solid blue
    3 - streaks as solid yellow lines with a blue gradient (100% - 0% opacity) overprinted to create the fade.  I suspect this will produce some green, but not sure.
    4 - streaks as solid yellow lines fading to transparency using an opacity mask then laid over the solid blue
    So there you have it.  Currently, I'm using method 1 and the colors seem to separate but I wonder if there won't be a faded out area in the middle where neither ink is at 100%.  Can anyone give me some advice about how best to execute this graphic in ink on an offset press without creating a green tint in the streaks?  Any insight would be helpful.
    Thanks!
    P.S. I'm using Adobe CS6

    To help out the middle from looking faded and weak in the middle, you can stack a yellow gradient on top of a blue gradientand set to multiply, then move the triangle from 50% towards 30%. Thisi will help no matter if you are printng 4/c, spot, white ink or substrate.

Maybe you are looking for