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.

Similar Messages

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"
          set mydoc to document 1
--make spot color, name it apple red
          if not (exists swatch "Black Plate Change" in mydoc) then
                    make new spot in mydoc with properties {color type:spot color, color:{cyan:0, magenta:0, yellow:0, black:100}, name:"Black Plate Change"}
          end if
end tell
tell application "Adobe Illustrator"
          tell application "Adobe Illustrator"
                    do script "Ungroup" from "Default Actions" without dialogs
          end tell
          set fill color of every path item of document 1 whose fill color is {class:spot color info, tint:100.0, spot:spot "[Registration]" of document 1} to {class:spot color info, tint:100.0, spot:spot "Black Plate Change" of mydoc}
          set fill color of every path item of mydoc whose fill color is {cyan:0, magenta:0, yellow:0, black:100} to {class:spot color info, tint:100.0, spot:spot "Black Plate Change" of mydoc}
          set fill color of every path item of mydoc whose fill color is {cyan:0, magenta:0, yellow:0, black:40} to {class:spot color info, tint:40.0, spot:spot "Black Plate Change" of mydoc}
          set stroke color of every path item of mydoc whose stroke color is {cyan:0, magenta:0, yellow:0, black:100} to {class:spot color info, tint:100.0, spot:spot "Black Plate Change" of mydoc}
          set fill color of words of every text frame of mydoc whose fill color is {cyan:0, magenta:0, yellow:0, black:100} to {class:spot color info, tint:100.0, spot:spot "Black Plate Change" of mydoc}
          set fill color of words of every text frame of mydoc whose fill color is {class:spot color info, tint:100.0, spot:spot "[Registration]" of document 1} to {class:spot color info, tint:100.0, spot:spot "Black Plate Change" of mydoc}
end tell
Appreciate any help.

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

The oddest thing with Illustrator CS6, I have a customer's file from Illustrator CS5, I'm trying to make a gradient from Process colors to Spot colors, I've done this to the fill, but it only did the stroke, even though the color pallete shows there's no

I have the gradient with PMS 288 and PMS 2915, I see only the outside of the fill recognizing this change. I wish I could attached the file to this question.
The file is from AI CS5, I'm working on it in AI CS6.

after expanding appearance under objects, I was able to correct this gradient. I called adobe support, they couldn't help I figured this fix on my own, but still I'd like to know what kind of path this was. there was nothing applied in the appearance pallette. But once expanding I had two paths.

How can I convert CMYK PDF file to Spot Color from a standard Spot Library?

Hi,
I have PDF file that is in CMYK colors. Can I use Adobe Pro X to convert the document to Spot Color from a established spot library like the PANTONE PC? Is there a plugin to do it?
Amit.

In method HMAC, you have towards the bottom
catch(Exception e) {}please change this to
catch(Exception e)
e.printStackTrace();
}Note that using the sun.* classes, including the sun.misc.BASE64Encoder class, requires elevated privileges (see http://forum.java.sun.com/thread.jspa?threadID=483223&messageID=2255882).
It is not difficult to write your own encoder/decoder class, or borrow one from someone else. Just google on "java base64 encoder".

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.

Preview in Mountain Lion Doesn't Like Spot Colors

I upgraded to Moutnain Lion and CS6 at the same time, and one thing I've noticed is that Mac's preview doesn't seem to dig on spot colors. Has anyone else noticed this? It seems to be the case with .ai and PDFs. Not a huge deal; when you open the files, the spot colors display properly, but when you view the files within a folder through Finder, click "space" to preview, or view the file as an attachment within Mail, anything with a spot color previews as solid black, which makes the file appear as if something is "off".
My biggest concern with this is if I'm sending a PDF to a client, and they only view it within their Mail app, will it view properly for them? Not knowing the answer, I've taken to converting all of my spot colors to CMYK before I save the proof file, and this way they display properly within Mac's various previews. Just wondering if everyone using Mountain Lion/CS6 are having this issue, or if mine is somehow an isolated case.

I'm having the same problem. When I open the Acrobat Files, the color looks fine. When I look at a PDF with spot colors in Preview Mode, in a Window Column View, or as an email attachment, I see SOME of the spot colors showing up as black, but not all of them. It seems to depend on the particular Spot Color.

Spot Colors and Transparency

In posters, brochures etc. designed with gradients,(AI10) when saving, I always get the "when spot colors are used w/transparency, changing them to process colors outside of illustrator can generate unexpected results."
My printer wants spot colors and that's what he gets. I use grays a lot 'cause client can't afford colors. He prepares the plates with the required dot intensities which go to another printer who prints all. So far, things have worked out OK. However, I worry when clients want photos included, and I'm not sure what I'm doing is just luck, or the way to go.
I open a .jpg in PS7,duplicate it as grayscale .psd,adjust and drag it on to a 150 or 300 ppi transparent background and save it. It's then "placed" in AI where it's needed and finished there.
With only 1 previous experience working in this manner, the brochure worked fine. So, just what exactly is that darn warning above telling me?
Do I continue to ignore it as I did the first time? Any suggestions for working with photos? I'd like to be more than just "lucky" and not have a failed work as a final product....thanks much...........m

It's telling you that if you are printing full process CMYK, then the spot colors will be converted to CMYK and it's not guaranteed that the spot color will look the same. There is always a shift in color gamut when converting to CMYK. As you are only printing to spot colors or grey, the warning doesn't apply.

Maximum of 27 Spot Colors

Hi,
I work at a printing company. Everything I know about Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop, and InDesign, I learned on the job with no classes or prior knowledge. I handle all the graphics that come through our shop, and every now and then I get artwork that when I try to save it in Illustrator, I get an error message that says Illustrator can only support a maximum of 27 spot colors. I don't even know what that means. Can someone explain to me in normal english what the problem here is, and how I can resolve it?
Thanks!

Well, logic suggests that there are objects in the artwork that have been assigned various spot colors. Spot colors would correspond to premixed, color-matched inks on press, as opposed to CMYK values. Illustrator is alerting you to the fact that it cannot save a file with more than 27 different spot colors specified.
There is probably a book to write on how amiss someone's workflow has gone, or how clueless they are about production, when they are sending their printer files with 20 or 30-some spot colors. And frankly, I suspect your own workflow is inherently a bit askew as well, as here you are trying to save a file with that many spot colors, although somehow it was saved before it got to you...apparently not in Illustrator. So I can only speculate that the artwork originated in some other application, perhaps arriving at your desk in PDF...(?)
Resolve it? You're a long way from the true roots of the problem, but if all you need is to save the file without getting an argument from Illustrator, try this:
Select all.
Choose Edit > Edit Colors > Convert to CMYK
Save.
Disclaimer: the colors you print may not meet the expectations of the person who produced the artwork. Of course, it sounds like that could be the case with or without the conversion.

How do i export only spot color?

I've exported a high res pdf with both cmyk images and spot color. However, my client needs the pdf in ONLY the spot color, so therefore i need to export only the pantone plate from InDesign.
Is this possible?

You cannot export separations to PDF, but you can print them to Postscript and distill (or if on Windows and you have the AdobePDF virtual printer you can print direcctly to PDF).

Changing to a spot color in a logo placed in an indesign document

Creating a docement in ID where I have placed a logo created in AI. is it possible to make the logo color a spot color in ID? I am using CS6 in creative clous on a PC running windows XP.

Why not change it in Illustrator?
Since you're using Creative Cloud you should be aware that the new
applications will not install on Windows XP. The minimum configuration
is Windows 7 SP1 or Windows 8.
Bob

Convert from spot color to custom CMYK value in Applescript

I thought this would be very simple and it's not apparently. I am trying to convert a spot color into a custom CMYK value. Basically:
tell application "Adobe Illustrator"
          set theList to every path item of current document
          repeat with k from 1 to count of theList
                    if fill color of item k of theList = {name:"Dark Green"} then
                              set fill color of item k of theList to {cyan:0.0, magenta:100.0, yellow:0.0, black:0.0}
                    end if
          end repeat
end tell
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.
Thanks!

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
                              if swname = "Dark Green" then
                                        set swco to color of item i of sw
                                        repeat with k from (count of theList) to 1 by -1
                                                  set co to fill color of item k of theList
                                                  if swco = co then
                                                            set fill color of item k of theList to {cyan:0.0, magenta:100.0, yellow:0.0, black:0.0}
                                                  end if
                                        end repeat
                              end if
                    end repeat
          end tell
end tell

How do I stop FH Mx from converting spot colors to cmyk on export to pdf

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.
-Steve

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.

Automatically converting spot colors to cmyk?

I am working with Acrobat 6.0.2 Professional on a Mac. Is there a way to set Acrobat or Distiller to convert spot colors to cmyk automatically when converting Quark documents to PDF? I also use Badia PrintTools as a preflight check when saving the Quark docs as a PDF.

Dear Andy
No, Distiller is not capable of doing this.
You might want to try 3rd party tools that perform this task.
pdfColorConvert from callas software
Quite a Box of Tricks from Quite Software
PitStop from enfocus
pdfOptimizer from Apago
Prinect Color Editor from Heidelberg
ColorConvert build into Acrobat 7 and 8 Professional.
rgds
Peter

I can't convert Spot Colors to CMYK in the Swatches Panel

I'm having an issue where I can't convert spot colors to CMYK in the swatches panel. Currently to fix I have to copy elements using the spot colors in to a new blank document, then convert them, then paste back into the original document. Is this a bug?
Also if I try to delete the spot color, it doesn't fully delet the swatch.
I'm using Illustrator CC 17.0.0
I've attached a video of my woes.
http://luniablue.com/adobe/swatch/index.html

1. Double click the swatch in the swatches
2. In the swatches options window select "Process Color" in the "Color Type" drop down menu
3. Deselect "Global"
4. Then change "Color mode" to CMYK if it is not already selected.
hope this helps

Convert CMYK to Spot Color or 2 Color in Adobe Acrobat 9 Standard

I have a file that is in a CMYK color format. The original document was created is MS Word. The file is currently CMYK but the printer I am sending it to needs either Spot Color or 2 color. Can I conver CMYK to either of these in Acrobat 9 standard?

I have a similar problem which i did not have before...and it exists only in some powerpoint files which i want to print as a pdf file...and i get the same message as above.
the log says the bellow details...what's the problem and how can i resolve it? thanks.
%%[ ProductName: Distiller ]%%
%%[Page: 1]%%
%%[Page: 2]%%
Cambria not found, using Courier.
%%[ Error: invalidfont; OffendingCommand: show ]%%
Stack:
%%[ Flushing: rest of job (to end-of-file) will be ignored ]%%

Converting CMYK colors to spot color?

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