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.

Similar Messages

  • 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.

  • How can I place a transparent psd into Illustrator CS4 without effecting my spot colors?

    So, I'm very naive about printing processes and am working with an online book building company. I've asked them how I need to fix this, but don't expect great advice from their design team.
    When saving in Illustrator, I've been receiving the error:
    "When spot colors are used with transparency, changing them to process colors outside of illustrator can generate unexpected results."
    This effected the printing because it left a halo in the shape of the placed transparent .psd. So I need to know how to flatten the transparent psd or something in order to not have it effect the colors below it.
    Thanks!

    Thanks Monika and John. I've been working in Spot colors simply because my client has limited my palette for the screen printing we've been doing on ceramics in the past. Now we want this book to match the colors on the ceramics. But if Pantone bridge back to CMYK would work, I'll do it. I have been saving to PDF by making a combined pdf directly from the .ai folder. My links are all embedded.
    Is there a way to convert all the colors in the document to CMYK at once? Otherwise I'm looking at a very long week.

  • Adobe Illustrator is showing CMYK in spot color document

    Hi,
    I created a PDF using Adobe Illustrator CS4, and although I am only using 2 spot colors, both, Illustrator and Acrobat are showing CMYK plates in the Separations Preview and Output Preview. When I turn off the Spot plates, there is nothing in the document. Could you please help me figure out why is this happenning?
    Thanks

    Every file has CMYK plates in Illustrator or Acrobat. I think you are over-thinking things.
    The important issue is:
    Are there any items actually on the plates??
    Just because there are plates, does not mean those plates contain artwork. Both Illustrator and Acrobat Pro will always indicate CMYK plates, but if there is no CMYK data, they won't print.

  • Please help me how to take the "Spot Color" in illustrator?

    Hi,
    Please help me how to take the "spot color in illustrator CS" using vb script (or) java script.
    Regards,
    Prabudass E.

    Prabudass,<br /><br />If you are just wanting to see if the illustrator file uses spot colors - run the Delete Unused Panel items from the default actions. then view the swatch palette in small or large List View. The color names that have a square containing a gray circle (spot) to the right of their color names are spot colors. <br /><br />The following will get the spot color name of an existing swatch named "Color1" and change it to "Nicks Swatch" and will assign the CMYK values stated.<br /><br />if (app.documents.length > 0){<br />var swatches = app.activeDocument.spots;<br />for(i=0;i<swatches.length;i++){ var currSwatch = swatches[i]; if(currSwatch.name == "Color1")<br />{currSwatch.name = "Nicks Swatch";<br />     var newColor = new CMYKColor(); <br />     newColor.cyan = 35; newColor.magenta = 0; <br />     newColor.yellow = 50; <br />     newColor.black = 0; <br />     currSwatch.color = newColor; } }}<br /><br />When this script has run the swatch palette will not immediately reflect the changes to the swatch name until you double click on a swatch and click OK or Cancel in the Edit Swatch dialog.<br /><br />I hope that I have understood your question correctly and that these responses are helpful.<br /><br />Good Luck<br /><br />Nick

  • 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.

  • Ungroup & Change PS spot color channels in illustrator!!

    In illustrator, how do you change a photoshop spot color channel that has been imported into illustrator. Ever since Illustrator CS2 you could import a psd into Illustrator and you could ungroup the channels and change the colors. How do you do that in CS3-6? I have been trying to figure this out for years. My old computer with Illustrator 10 is about to die and so will my ability to do what I descried above unless someone can clue me in.
    Thanks!!!

    It's not clear what you are having problems with. One would simply flatten the object and colorize the resulting "channels" with tints.
    Mylenium

  • Creating spot color in Illustrator CS4 js

    Hi,
    I need to create spot color in Illustrator CS4 with js, with assigned name and color values. Here what I have:
    myColor = myDoc.spots.add({name:"FOIL", colorValue:[10, 0, 100, 0]});
    But it comes out as process instead of spot and the color is not assigned.
    Thank you for your help.
    Yulia

    the add function has no parameters, you have to add them after
    addSpot ('FOIL', 10, 0, 100, 0);
    function addSpot(name, c, m, y, k) {
        try {
            swatch = app.activeDocument.swatches[name]; // if swatch exists....
            addSpot (name+='1', c, m, y, k); // ...add 1 to swatch name
        catch (e) {
            var newSpot = app.activeDocument.spots.add();
            newSpot.name = name;
            var newColor = new CMYKColor();
            newColor.cyan = c;
            newColor.magenta = m;
            newColor.yellow = y;
            newColor.black = k;
            newSpot.colorType = ColorModel.SPOT;
            newSpot.color = newColor;
            var newSpotColor = new SpotColor();
            newSpotColor.spot = newSpot;

  • Is it possible to create a gradient mesh object with 2 spot colors which separates & prints as a 2 color print job?

    I have a gradient mesh object which uses 2 spot color values (including some tints of those 2 colours) which I'd like to print as a 2 color print job. Is this possible? If not, any suggestions as to how I should proceed? The print job MUST be 2 color. Ideally I don't want to use raster objects but if I have to would appreciate any advice on the easiest way to transform my 2 color mesh object into a matching duotone raster object.

    I'd really say it's that PPD with the new n-space features of CS3 and CS4. If I use your PPD I get the same shoddy results you do with the postscript file. In fact, Acrobat Distiller errors with a log...
    <PDFX ISO="15930-1:2001" COMPLIANT="false">
    PDF/X Compliance Report
    1.  Color
       The following pages are separated plates:
          Page 1, Occurrences: 1
          Page 2, Occurrences: 1
          Page 3, Occurrences: 1
          Page 4, Occurrences: 1
       Violation.  The use of %%PlateColor is not permitted and was found in the document.  Occurrences: 7
       Violations: The total found in this section was 11.
    2.  Summary
       Warnings: The total found in this document was 0.
       Violations: The total found in this document was 11.
       This document does not pass PDF/X-1a:2001 compliance checks.
    </PDFX>
    %%[ Warning: Did not pass PDF/X compliance tests. No PDF file produced. ] %%
    If I use your PPD, print your AI file to a postscript file, then simply open the resulting Postscript file with AICS4, I see the same bad results that I showed in the movie. I think the PPD can't handle the new method of breaking out spots in gradients. Just to test this theory... try a different PPD and see if that works, at least to show the seps properly.

  • 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

  • Placing Photoshop files in Illustrator CS5 results in wrong percentages of spot colors?

    When placing a native PSD file into Illustrator CS5 that includes different percentages of spot colors they will be different than what was specified in Photoshop. The spot colors are overlaying CMYK to create a see thru look.
    For example if the spot color is 40% it will end up being 16%. 100% will stay at 100%, but any other percentage will be different than what is entered in Photoshop.
    We are able to see the difference when creating a PDF or when the file is output to our high end printer. It can also be visually seen when putting an Illustrator CS4 and and Illustrator CS5 side by side.
    I can take the same PSD file and place it into Illustrator CS4 and it retains the percentage that is entered in Photoshop. All percentages match the percentages that are entered in Photoshop when a PDF is created or printed to our printer.
    I have tried saving the PSD file out as a Tiff file and a DCS2.0 file and get the same results in Illustrator CS5.
    Is there a bug in Illustrator CS5 or should we handle our Spot Color Scans a different way? We never had this issue with any previous version of Illustrator.
    Any suggestions or solutions would be appreciated.
    Thanks

    Hi Mike,
    I understand what your saying but I should have mentioned that the Spot Colors are actually overlaying the CMYK in Photoshop not in Illustrator CS5. When this scan gets placed in Illustrator the Spot Colors values are different. There is no art below the scan in Illustrator. Hope this makes it a little clearer on what were trying to do.
    Also remember that it works just fine in any version of Illustrator before CS5.
    Thanks

  • Why does the Illustrator "trap" command trap the same spot colors in opposite ways?

    I can not understand how Illustrator decides which way to expand something when using the "trap" command. According to their tutorial it expands the lighter-colored artwork over the darker artwork, unless you choose to reverse traps. But in practise, where two objects of the same color meet, it will frequenrly trap them in one direction in one place and the opposite direction in the other.
    Here's an example with especially large traps:
    The two yellow items are defined as the same spot color and are a single compound path. There is just the one simple shape of spot red and one simple shape of spot pink.
    On the left yellow object, it expands yellow over pink. On the right, it expands pink over yellow. On the left yellow object, it expands red over yellow. On the right, it expands yellow over red.
    There is no possible print order of these three spot colors that would result in the correct object shapes being printed the way this is trapped. Is this just a bug? Can anyone explain this result, or especially how to make it work in a useable way?
    All objects are spot colors that are cut out from each other so there were no overlaps.

    Here's what it looks like with overprint preview:
    It still looks wrong.
    This view is glossing over how bad it would really look with screen printing, because the inks are much higher opacity than they're previewing here. I suppose that's what you're getting at, that the trapping may be bad for screen printing, but if you're assuming offset press inks that have next to no opacity and will mix together on press, that it doesn't matter which way you trap. Overprint preview makes yellow overprinting pink look the same as pink overprinting yellow. With spot colors in screen printing, that is no where near the case.
    But even consdiering that, this trapping is wrong, the final shapes of the objects are changed by the trapping. And the trapping does not appear to follow Adobe's own description of the logic used, or any kind of consistency. Why would it expand yellow into pink in some places and pink into yellow in others?
    I've heard the trapping in Indesign is much better, some screen printers open in Indesign to add trapping... maybe I'll look at that.

  • Illustrator CS6, CC, "CC 2014" not honoring a 100% Cyan Spot Color Swatch change.

    Why does Illustrator CS6, CC, "CC 2014" not honor a "100% Cyan Spot Color Swatch" changing the % value in the Color Pallet.
    I create 3 different Spot Color Swatches of 100% Cyan, 100% Magenta and 100% Yellow in the Swatch pallet.
    Then I fill 3 different squares with one of each Swatch and put the Fill to 70% on all in the Color Pallet.
    Now I try to change each square back to 100% value in the Color Pallet by typing a number into the Percent Field.
    But the Cyan Spot Color does not honor the entry, the Yellow and Magenta are fine.
    Has anyone seen this behavior before, and what can be done to resolve it?
    Thanks,
    J

    I would report this as a bug, you can use the slider to set it to 100%, but not enter that value by  typing. Strange.
    Adobe - Feature Request/Bug Report Form

  • Print Spot Color Gradients?

    Hello there,
    Could anybody tell me if it's at all possible to print gradients using spot colors? For example, I'm wanting to create a gradient from a near black color to a slightly lighter gray.
    I'd be grateful for any advice.
    Regards,
    Kristopher (UK).

    I have never, ever had a gradient built from 2 different Pantones do anything but separate to 4 color. Unfortunately I can't test in ID CS3 as whenever I try to add a second Pantone to the gradient swatch ID crashes.
    Please make a PDF from these 2 Pantone gradients and post it. I'd like to see it.
    Edit: I stand corrected. I was able to do this in ID CS3. So the day wasn't a total loss for me and I learned something new. Thanks Luke and Scott for setting me straight.

  • 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

Maybe you are looking for