Applying spot color to imported graphic

Hello, I'm hoping someone can help me. I used to use Pagemaker, and it was so quick and easy to import a B/W graphic and apply spot color to it from the color palette, but when I try to do this in ID (CS3), it either just adds color to the outline of the bounding box or fills the bounding box with color and leaves the actual logo graphic black (happens with either eps or tif). I've been trying to find the right way to apply color to an import through the InDesign Help Center, but I haven't been able to find anything that seems to help, and I need to be able to do this soon!! Can anyone please give me some tips about how to handle this type of situation? Much thanks and appreciation to anyone who can help!

Thanks for both of your replies, but unfortunately, what you have both suggested is exactly what I've been doing, and nothing happens. And dragging the swatch onto the graphic hasn't done anything either. I've tried with both tif and eps files, but nothing happens with either kind of file. Anybody have any other ideas or help you can give?

Similar Messages

Applescript: Applying spot colors to existing paths...

OK, this is clearly a noob question, but i can't figure out the syntax... i want to apply particular spot colors to pre-existing compound paths... sounds simple enough, then why can't i find a post on this subject?.. here's a quick sample script...
tell application "Adobe Illustrator"
    make new document
    make new rectangle in document 1 with properties {bounds:{20, 20, 100, 100}}
    set the fill color of the result to {class:spot color info, tint:100, spot:"Spot4"}
end tell
I'm using CS3 if that makes a difference... thanks in advance for your help...

ok, found a post from nine months ago addressing a similar problem that i found my answer within... in case any other newbies are interested...
here's the new line...
set the fill color of the result to {class:spot color info, tint:100, spot:spot "Spot4" of document 1}
thanks to the few people who looked at this post...

Spot colors merging?

Hello everybody!
I was recently assigned to do the layout / editorial design of a small magazine.
It consisted of illustrations by various artists and was printed with two inks. A typical situation I would say.
I asked all the illustrators to send me their files as .ais or .pdfs and that they already had assigned to (random) spot colors (with a hint on their names about the order and their desired overprints).
I had in mind that it would be rather simple that upon importing them in InDesign I would just merge the corresponding spot colors of each illustration to the two ones that were actually used.
Well, of course I learned the hard way that this kind of merging in not possible in InDesign (unlike Illustrator).
So, what would your technique be to merge spot colors that import with files to the ones are actually going to be printed / chosen.
Thanks in advance!

@P Spier and @Steve Werner
Thanks for your quick replies.
I actually knew about the Ink Alias feature (this is eventually the way I did it) but it is not that convenient
as I got around 30 spot swatches in my Swatches panel and a lot of aliases in the Ink Manager so it was at least confusing.
The Separations Preview does help but when actually designing is distracting to have all the imported graphics using different colors.
Again, thanks for your help.

Spot colors now missing in PDF!

Issue: spot color channel not showing up in Photoshop generated PDFs. Worked previously, this just started last week.
Workflow: receive PDF ads from client via email. Open file, usually Jpg, Tiff or PDF, in photoshop CS4. save as PSD, with new name, grayscale, 300 dpi for newspaper printing.
some ads get spot/PMS color added. add spot channel. move art from grayscale layer to spot color layer. save file as PSD with spot colors. (for import to InDesign.) Photoshop file looks fine on screen.
for Client proof, Save As "ad proof", turn OFF photoshop editing, so client does not change ad. Turn ON "as a copy", "spot color" and "view PDF".
It worked fine for the past year, now, NOT. The PMS spot channel is not showing on the photoshop generated PDF, If I import the psd file into Indesign, and generate the PDF 1x version, same thing.
Spent 7 hours on phone with tech support, they did not have a clue as to why or what was going on. I have uninstalled, deleted everything Adobe, and spent 7 hours reinstalling CS4.
Newly installed Photoshop not working, same issue. Print to PDF using PDF 9.0 "printer" not working.
HELP!

I just had a very similar problem using CS5 Master Suite.
I had a CMYK job (a business card) that needed converting into a spot colour job.
There was a logo in CMYK that was red, blue and black, so I created 3 new channels in Photoshop and separated the colours into each specific channel. I saved the logo as a Tiff file and imported the logo file into Indesign. On-screen it looked fine (black, red, blue) and I could see the new spot colours had imported into the swatches correctly. However, when I exported the Indesign file as a PDF, one of the spot colours was missing (the red one).
So I changed the logo file (Tiff) into a Photoshop file hoping it would fix the bug, but no such luck.
Out of interest, I duplicated the Red channel and repeated my procedure, this time when I made the PDF the blue channel that was there previously disappeared!!!
When I checked the forum and heard that the poor person spent 7 hours with tech support, I thought bugger that, I just saved each channel as a separate Tiff file, dropped the black file onto the logo so that it was in place, then did a Step&Repeat (ie copied a duplicate of the logo ontop of itself), then dropped the new Tiff file on top of that and changed its colour to Red in the Swatches, and did the same with the blue file.
Now I have a PDF file that shows all the different spot colours and I can go home on time tonight.
I could do all this stuff on CS1. The only 'improvements' I have found in CS5 so far is that my beloved 'Variations' option in Photoshop has now disappeared because they couldn't be bothered to create this feature in 64 bit.

Can't apply tint or spot color to graphic

I have a grayscale, 1-layer graphic in a layout that will not let me apply a tint or spot color.
I must be missing something basic here.
ID CS2

If there's any transparency, it won't work.
Otherwise, make sure you're doing this properly.
Select the graphic with the direct selection tool (white arrow) and then
apply the color or
Drag the color from the swatches panel onto the graphic.
Bob

Can placed black eps graphics be separated as spot color in ID?

I have a 400 plus page catalog that has all kinds of product images in it. Most are bitmaps or tifs that already have a spot color assigned to them. However there are several placed eps graphics that have been created in Illustrator and are black. I would like to make these black eps graphics print with the other spot items. Is there a way to mark them in ID for this, or do I have to make a spot color version of each one an re-place them?

If your graphics are all on separate layers from the text, you selectively toggle layers for print.
Alternatively, you could create a new black swatch for your text and change all the text in a few clicks (if your using paragraph styles).

How to import a spot color image in illustrator

when importing a sport color tiff created in photoshop to illustrator the spot color image is not getting imported properly.

kandasamy:
PSDs will do nicely, and remain editable as well. Don't quite know what you mean by spot color TIFF as spots are not supported in this format.
You should, however, be able to "paint" a grayscale tiff any spot you like in Illustrator.
J

Dear Spot Color Printing Gods......... Please Help Me!

Ok so here is my story...
I have been doing graphic design and 3D work for about 7 years. I have NEVER worked in print before, and no NOTHING of color separation or spot color, etc... I am learning all this right now on the fly for my new job, and its not going well. I was hired and expected to hit the ground running, even though I made it clear I did not have any screen printing experience. (I was mainly hired to help with web design) I have had some mistakes doing the color separation (not 4 color) and its costing the printer money to see if I did it wrong or not. The printer has no experience with the software (and only speaks English fairly well), nor does my boss know the software, but they both know how its SUPPOSED to look, and they are getting impatient.. Needless to say, I have to turn to the internet for help, so please be gentle with me not knowing much...
SO....Im a PC user working on a Mac & Illustrator Cs3(I know Mac fairly well). I have learned the basics pretty fast for screen printing. The printer is using spot colors only. After I get the Illustrator file (yes its vector), I delete all swatches except the "Pantone Solid Coated" colors used in the art - or I have to add them from the Solid Coated color book. After that, I would separate the colors by 1) Duplicating the image however many times that there are colors. (So a splat of soup has 3 colors, I duplicate it 3 times with register marks) 2) I remove all the color except the one Im trying to show. (Im showing the green peas, so I remove the red and yellow colors from the other objects) 3) then I make what the printer calls the "Flash" (the white undertone that the paint adheres to on the garment) I make this by taking the art, and reducing the size to 1pt smaller. Once all the colors are seperated, I make each color 100% black, convert the image to grayscale and THEN Im done. Problems I have been running into have been registration marks somehow not lining up and some colors do not end up 100% spot tones.. One other wierd thing is when I convert to grayscale on the Mac, the art work retains its color on the screen. When I tried to do that at home on my PC, the artwork turns gray????
WHEW! So what I am asking for is a fast, simple way to color seperate a vector file and then create the flash. And/or how to create a template that I can reuse, that is ready for me to just drop artwork into for spot color seperation. I have included an image to show you a project I am working on. Its an ice cream spill on a shirt. I have tried to start a template with reg. marks, and that is what you will see here. There are 5 colors that I have to specify. The printer actually told me that I do not need to split up the art work the way I have been, nor do I need to change it to black, and all that I have to do is specify all the colors,(spot colors/100% only) and then the printer does the seperation on the clear film. (it only prints in black) I was also curious why my PC would change the artwork gray and the Mac does not when converting to grayscale. I thank you VERY MUCH for even reading this maddness that is my life right now, and hope you can give me some helpful wisdom to assist and lead me on my journey. The job pays well, and I need the money badly! Thank you very much for any and all help you can give me!
~LiQ

Some misconceptions evidenced in your post.
You don't have to use a Pantone library to create spot colors. Pantone is just one brand of spot color definitions and inks intended for offset lithography; not screen printing. You can define any color you want as a Swatch and then specify it as Spot. A Spot color is simply a color that represents an individual ink that will be physically used in the printing process. Therefore, if you want to please your boss:
1. Get the color chip brochure for the particular brand(s) of screen ink your operation uses.
2. Open Illustrator. New CMYK document. Delete all the Swatches that can be deleted.
3. In the Swatches palette, for each color of your screen inks, create a new Swatch. Use the CMYK sliders to make its color match the ink as best you can. Name the swatch according to the name of the actual screen ink (ex: Nazdar_BrilliantBlue). In fact, the ink manufacturer(s) you use may already provide a ready-made Illustrator Swatch Library for their various series of inks. Check their websites to see.
4. After creating the swatches, save the Library, and/or save the file as a tempate file. Now you'll always have your Spot colors available for new projects.
Now just draw your design and apply the spot colors to the paths as fills and/or strokes. When you print the file as separations, you'll get a separate print for each spot color used. One of the simplest ways to "proof" (test) this is to "print" as separations to the Adobe PDF virtual printer. That will result in a PDF file that has one grayscale page for each ink in your design. That way, you can check what overprints and what knocks out on screen without wasting time or materials. Once confident everything is right, you can then use the PDF to print the actual film positives.
One of your swatches should be a spot white for your underprint. ( "Flash" is not actually an ink color. It's a production step in which a dryer semi-dries an imprinted ink before overprinting it with another. You usually flash a white underprint, but you just as often flash any color with significant density that needs to be overprinted with a following color.) Understand, you don't have to make this swatch actually appear white. For example, I often make it a pale magenta just so I can see it on screen when working with it.
Just because the white underprint is going to be printed underneath the other colors, doesn't mean it has to be layered under your other colors in your Illustrator document. Remember, each ink is going to be printed to its own plate anyway. So it's simpler to just put your white underprint objects on a Layer above the rest of the artwork, and set it to overprint, so that it doesn't knock out the rest of the artwork on layers below it in the stacking order.
Assuming the white underprint has to underprint all the other colors, creating the white underprint should be the near-last step. It's simply a matter of duplicating the colored artwork objects, moving them to the Underprint layer, filling/stroking them with the spot white color and (for efficiency) merging them into as few paths as possible. The Merge or Union Pathfinder commands are typically used for that.
JET

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.

PSD Spot Color Channels in Illustrator CS4

Hi all.
Screenprinter here. Trying to migrate my way into CS4. No such
luck so far.
Way back in Illustrator CS2 I used to be able to place a PSD file with Spot Channels,
and have each channel show up as a separate object in Illustrator. This was incredibly
useful, nay, necessary for creating/laying out separations and adding vector work.
From what I've read and tried, this is no longer possible in CS4, which leaves me running two versions,
which is no fun.
I suppose my question is, has anyone come up with a workaround for this, or does the newest
release support this type of operation? From reading the boards, I've found that I'm not nearly
the only person who needs this feature, and so would hope that there is an alternative to
running CS2 still.
Us poor lowly screen printers get dumped on by nearly all Adobe products in terms of usability
(ever shoot the stock reg marks from photoshop?) give us this one feature!

In Illustrator CS2, the individual Spot Channels from Photoshop used to become Opacity masks when imported.
In Illustrator CS4, they are not converted to Opacity masks. Your spot colors are still there - look in the Swatches panel. There is a Spot channels image in the layers panel with 100% Multiply blend mode applied to it.
So it is not correct to say that it is no longer possible to bring spot channels from Photoshop into the Illustrator CS4. See the comparison snapshots below.
Hope this helps.

Converting to spot colors in InDesign

Hi, Im trying to create a two color job in InDesign that will be black and red. The problem I have is that our imagesetter is not separating the colors.
I was told that the red color needs to be a spot color in InDesign for the imagesetter to know to separate the colors. Otherwise, if the colors are not set as a spot color then it sends the file as CMYK separations or grayscale separations.
The question I have is how can I change the images (and text) in my InDesign file to be set as a spot color? Thanks in advance.

You can import a grayscale image and use your two spot colors to create a mixed ink color, or you can create a duotone in PS, or if is line-art a multicolor DCS file. If it is line-art you can also create two separate grayscale or bitmap (black & white) images of each element in PS line them up in ID and apply your spot color to each. Too bad you can not color each layer PSD grayscale file in ID.

Issue with Gaussian Blur and Spot Colors

Wondering if anyone has a solution to this issue.
Setup: We are using CS4 + CS5 Illustrator on Mac OS 10.5.X and 10.6.X
We created a spot color radial gradient filled circle over a background of the same spot color. The gradient went from 100% of the color down to 2%. We then applied a gaussian blur set to 50 pixels so that we had a nice smooth transition from the circle blurring outwards over the background with the blur blending into the spot color background.
The problem arises when we select "Retain Spot Colors" on the blur. It fills the gradient circle with 100% solid color (but at the 2% range of the gradient so it appears white) and deletes the blur effect. If we don't select "Retain Spot Colors", it converts the blur to process and we get a banding on our printouts where the spot background and CMYK gaussian meet.
We tried the gaussian blur set at 5 pixels all the way up to 55 in 10 pixel increments but nothing worked. We tried different spot colors, same issue. We know we can do the background in Photoshop and import it into Illustrator as a workaround, but we are constantly editing and changing files and would like to keep everything in Illustrator.
Does anyone have any suggestions on how to solve this or if there is even a solution. We have not tried Illustrator 5.5 and do not want to invest the money in the upgrade yet. We would prefer to stay with both CS4 and CS5.
Thank you for any input.

Hi Mike,
Okay, I have some new information that changes things. I misunderstood what the issue was from the designer. My apologies in advance for the confusion. There are actually two issues but they are somewhat related.
Issue 1:
We are concerned with banding on the outside of a spot color gradient with a gaussian blur over a patterned background of the same spot color. We do not know if this is becasue of the number of pixels on the blur, the version of Illustrator, the blending of the blur into the patterned background, etc... While the banding looks slight on screen it is more pronounced when printed. There are many variables and we have tried everything we can think of to create a smooth transition but we keep getting some banding.
The first image shows what happens when the Preserve Spot Colors in the Raster Effects Settings (found under the Effect menu) is unchecked. We believe that the spot color is being treated as CMYK and causing the blur to be a slightly different color than the spot color background thus causing the banding.
The second image shows what happens when we select Preserve Spot Colors. We lose the blur.
The third image is what we are trying to achieve over a over a patterned background of the same spot color. This was achieved with the Preserve Spot Colors unchecked and also unchecking Overprint Preview in the Separations Preview Palette. However, this brings us right back to the issue with the Preserve Spot Color being unchecked.
Issue 2:
The issue is that we want to print a spot color gradient with a gaussian blur (over 50 pixels). In order to preview the blur effect correctly we have to uncheck the Preserve Spot Colors in the Raster Effects Settings (found under the Effect menu). However, we have recently found out that this will not work with the software our printers use to do separations. If we check the Preserve Spot Color for the separator, it turns the blur into a large square of color (see screensnap below). We have played around with the Add: x Around Object setting in Raster Effects but it has not helped.
3. If we do not select "Preserve Spot Color", the blur looks correct but it is no longer a spot color but CMYK when separated.
I hope that isn't too confusing and makes sense. Again, apologies for the mixup on my part originally. Thanks again for any help.

Printing more than 27 spot colors HELP

I have been printing a document that I use more that 27 spot colors, I use a Xerox Docucolor 240 which supports printing pantone colors. I have been printing this document for 3 years now when I try to print this document I am getting an error. It wants me to convert my spot colors to process, but when I do this my colors do not print properly. Any Ideas? It is very important my colors print correctly for this document, I can not convert them to process. Why has this stopped working for me now?

Hi Tracy. I found this post when searching for a solution to the same problem! Our workflow incorporates a lot more spot colours than 27 as we are merging a document which imports graphics/images according to a customer's branding. We have to use spot colours so that we can tweak them to a closer match when temperature/new fiery updates etc change the colours away from the orginal created (our customers have literature printed months, sometimes years later than when created). We simply wouldn't have time to manually input tweaked colour values to all the artwork documents we handle.
Anyway, Tracy I also ran into the same problem. We used to be fine merging, with each page being created and added so we end up with a multipage file after the merge, and then we can spool to print in one hit. Now all of a sudden we have this error too. No I haven't found a solution either! Please do let us know if you find an answer.

Gradients -- Spot Colors -- Illustrator CC

I have created a gradient in Illustrator CC
Using percentages of a single spot color, applied to a bar graph.
The gradient definition is clearly in the pantone color
When the bar chart is imported into InDesign CC, it separates as cmyk.
When attempting to find a solution, i have seen references to a "Separation Setup Dialogue Box".
http://helpx.adobe.com/illustrator/using/apply-or-edit-gradient.html
And I recall having used this in earlier versions of Illustrator.
But I cannot find that dialogue box in Illustrator CC, or any other function that would preserve the spot color separation.
Any guidance would be appreciated.
Thank you!

After having done some tests, I believe that the problem MAY have to do with saving up from earlier versions.
i leave this information with thaks to Monika (as well as Mike) in hopes that it may help someone else dealing with the same problem.
1) The gradients were created by
-- loading pantone swatches
-- using gradient tool, then assigning the pantone color to the pointers on the gradient tools, and assigning percentages via the "greyscale-type" styler
2) The files were saved in .ai format.
3) Placed, not pasted into Indesign
4) My current method of checking the colors is both using InDesign's Window > Output > Separations preview... as well as outputting separations to my laser printer.
WHAT I LEARNED WAS THIS.
The files that began in earlier versions of AI and were saved separated into CMYK (but curiously also created pantone plate) so they were in fact 5 color builds
When I started from scratch with a brand new Illustrator CC file, the gradients otherwise created by the same method remained in the pantone color when placed in InDesign.
There are so many variables here that I am not entirely CERTAIN that attributing this to the change in version is accurate.
But at this point, that is what I believe.
Thanks again to all who helped and good luck to all lost digital pilgrims who wind up in this thread.

CMYK layers showing up when spot color illos placed in InDesign CS3

When I place an Illustrator CS3 (13.0.2) illustration into InDesign CS3 (5.0.3), Preflight tells me that CMYK colors are being used, even though the imported illustration has only 2 Pantone spot colors matching those used in the InDesign document (the 2 spot colors show up in Preflight as well). I double-checked to make sure they were spot colors, not CMYK. When I go to Separations Preview, my 2 spot color show up but nothing shows on the CMYK layers. I deleted all unused color swatches in my InDesign file (and the Illustrator file), and when I delete the illustration Preflight just shows the 2 PMS spot color that I'm using in the document. I'm using Mac OS 10.5.4 on a brand-new Quad-Core Xeon, if that matters.
I've tried saving the illustration as both AI and EPS, and using CMYK and RGB color modes. I deleted all unused color swatches from both Illustrator and InDesign. For another test, I created a fresh Illustrator file that just had a box in 1 spot color and placed it in a fresh InDesign file, and again Preflight said that CMYK was being used. Besides the usual work-around of telling my service bureau to not output the CMYK film, does anyone have any idea of how to correct this? I've encountered it several times. (BTW, my service bureau didn't know what the problem is).
This is my first visit and post here, so if I have violated some forum etiquette, please forgive me.
James

Save a PDF and place that.
Bob

Applying spot color to imported graphic

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