InDesign Workflow with spot colors only

Please can someone explain me why InDesign treats working with four spot colors differently than working with CMYK? They are just four colors or channels, right? What is the difference between Cyan or PANTONE Reflex Blue?
It is true that 99% of the time CMYK is used. It is also true that you can work in CMYK and tell the printer to put a different ink instead of the a Cyan, Megenta, Yellow or Black ink. The project I work on now involves four Pantone spot colors and a few illustrators how need/want to see what they are doing, so...
The question is mainly because InDesign is soooooooooo slow working with spot colors. It feels slower than Quark Xpress 4.11 on a Mac OS 9 G4 machine.
Many thanks!
[-> InDesign CC, MacBook Pro 7i 2011, SSD, 16 G RAM, 1 G GPU]

I have never seen ID slow down with spot colors, but, I have not gone past CS5.5 nor do I work with OSX, both of which have many threads releating to screen draw times, and general lag.
SproetS wrote:
Please can someone explain me why InDesign treats working with four spot colors differently than working with CMYK? They are just four colors or channels, right?
I would suggest working mostly in Overprint Preview when working with Spot Colors.
What is the difference between Cyan or PANTONE Reflex Blue?
Excepting that they are both defined colors...everything about them is different.
Consider this - c, m, y, k are all spot colors. They are base colors, not different (to me) than Warm Red, Rhodamine Red, Reflex Blue, Pantone Green, Pantone Purple, Pantone Violet, Pantone Rubine Red, there are a few others..
In you color pallet, Yellow is not a spot color - it is a mix of (typically) y and 0~20% m.
Same for each color in the default pallet - 0~100% of c,m,y,k
It is true that 99% of the time CMYK is used.
Many spot colors cannot be accurately reproduced in the cmyk spectrum.
It is also true that you can work in CMYK and tell the printer to put a different ink instead of the a Cyan, Megenta, Yellow or Black ink. The project I work on now involves four Pantone spot colors and a few illustrators how need/want to see what they are doing, so...
Those days are gone. You would need to be more familair with the hammer and screw approach to avoid overprint mistakes, tints are not the same as transparencies, many hurdles here that have long been forgotten. What you would see on screen would be nothing near to the actual project.
It should be determined before preceeding if the project will be printed cmyk or as 4 spot colors.

Similar Messages

Convert PDF Document to PDF with Spot Color

I want to convert a regular PDF document with RGB/CMYK color profile to one with Spot color. Can this be done using Acrobat X Pro, if so How?

Hi Steve
I am still working on the process to automate the conversion of PDF file with RGB color profile to Spot.
I am nearly there, here is the method...
1. Have a prefight profile with the spot color fixes. For now I put in 10 colors.
2. Wrote a Javascript that will invoke the preflight profile
3. Cretated an application (AutoSpotFix) in VC++ and Acrobat SDK that will open the document and assign the javascript function to 'WillSave' document action. The AutoSpotFix will then trigger the save on the document.
Java script had to be involved because SDK cannot invoke the preflight profile.
Now my problem is the document can contain any spot color, I need to
a) Either put in the thousands of spot color into my preflight profile, which will take days to do. Or I can create a preflight profile file (*.kfp) and load it, which is an XML file.
b) Dynamically load the preflight profile file with the few current colors, for which I need to dynamically create the preflifgt profile.
Either way I have to create the *.kfp file, Is there a way to create the Preflight profile file?

Problem exporting file with spot colors to pdf

I have a book which I designed in InDesign CS3. It has 150 images in it which are Photoshop eps files: black line drawings with a spot color fill. InCS3, when I needed to send files back and forth to the publisher, the eps files came out fine in any pdf I made. Now in CS5.5, no matter what I do, only the spot color shows up in the images -- their black outlines won't show up. I'm sure it's got something to do with settings of some kind but I can't figure it out for the life of me. Help!

I'm viewing the pdf in Acrobat Pro X. I do see that if I turn Flattener Preview on, I can see the whole image in a separate preview box, but that's not going to work very well when I send it to an editor who is technologically challenged. Is there not a way to ake the pdf behave the way it does if I make it from CS3, where the flattening shows in the pdf by default? As it is, this seems like a step backwards, unless of course, there's something I am missing.

Problems with spots colors and printing

Hello everyone,
I am currently working on a business card for a client. The design calls for white text with an inner shadow to sit above a bar with a gradient. One of the colors in the gradient is reflex blue. When I export the file to a pdf and try to print it the text box fills with white and the graident bar changes colors and a portion of it becomes solid. I can fix the problem by printing the pdf as an image or removing the reflex blue and substituing it for another dark blue. However there really isn't a close match in cymk to Reflex Blue C. Is there a way I could continue using reflex blue ( incidentally that is one of the company colors) without these short of issues? If it helps I am using Indesign cs5, Acrobat X, Mac OS 10.6.8, using Creo Rip Software and Printing on a Xerox 700 digital press.

I tried putting the text on another layer but it didn't change anything. The only solution that has worked so far is changing the spot color, reflex blue, to a cmyk color. Here is a screen shot of the problem and some of my export options
Hopfully that helps. In a realted issue, is there a way of lowering the transperancy of a graphic that uses spot colors without changing the color? Once again the problem is reflex blue. When I lower the transparacy the color turns purplish. Thanks for the help

Trapping problems with spot colors

MAC 10.5.4 CS3
I have had two books present similar problems with one of our printers. Both books are 2 color. The first is 2 spot colors and the second is spot and black. The problem is that the traps are showing up as white. It looks like anything that is trapped has a white stoke applied. One book has headers using the spot ink for the text, in a black box. These are all getting the white outline around the text. The other book has the the darker spot for text overprinting screened boxes of the lighter spot. The overprinted text looks ok.
I had previously posted about the illustrations in the 2 spot book and have been able to take care of the issue regarding Transparency vs. postscript. But as we are still having this issue with some text and there is no transparency used I am wondering if there is some setting I can adjust to fix this.

How is the trapping being applied? Did you set it yourself in InDesign?
I think the default for InDesign is to use an InRIP trapping. And I always thought that was not part of ID's setup.
Maybe I'm wrong. So let me know.

Bringing very complicated Illustrator files with spot color into ID?

I'm putting together the files for printing the first collection of my current comic book. Normally I'd just output 300dpi TIFFs, but I'm using a spot color overlay in this project.
Does anyone know the best way to get this into InDesign with the spot color intact?
These are SUPER COMPLICATED files, and experience has taught me that just saving a PDF to drop into InDesign results in a note from the printer that the file refused to print. I also can't do tricks involving moving it into Photoshop and selecting one particular color to put onto a new channel, as there's a lot of overprinting going on.

I think maybe you should check with other printers, as well.
Bob

Changing images (and text) in InDesign file to spot color.

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.

Please re-ask your question in the ID forum:
Mike

Color conversion : special behavior with Spot Color "All"

Hello,
I have a document with printmarks which have a spot color "All". While I convert the page using the "Color conversion" to Gray 1.8 with Adobe Acrobat X the spot color "All" are still present (with the alternate color space DeviceGray).
Using Adobe Acrobat 9.x all objects have a DeviceGray color.
Is it a bug or a new behavior? Moreover the SDK method doesn't convert the spot color but keep the name (but I know this is not the right place to post it - it's just for information).
Regards,
Joe

I sense you may not understand the difference between sopt and process colors in the printing process.
When you use process inks you build all color representations by combining dots of varying sizes from each of the four process colors, cyan, magenta, yellow, and black. Because the dots are two small to be seen individually your brain is fooled into thinking it sees other colors. Process color printing requires four printing plates to produce the full range of colors possible, but that range is limited compared to what you can see in real life or capture in RGB.
Spot colors, in contrast, are similar to paint. Each color is mixed individually, and every spot color requires its own plate on the printing press (and you must use a press -- toner and inkjet printers use cmyk inksets and cannot print real spot colors). Because of the expense of these plates, the use of spot colors is usually limited to one or two colors in any print job, and if the job has other color (like photographs) that requires process inks, converting the spot colors to the closest process simulation is often employed if the spot colors can be simulated "close enough" to satisfy the client and the budget is tight.
I would avoid using process colors for type in small sizes or for very thin strokes, especially in lighter colors, as you are likely to see ragged edges.
So, how many spot color swatches did you use? More than two? More than four? Do you have a huge budget to produce the work? This may be a project that really should be designed from the ground up as process, or process and one spot for that hard to print bright accent color.

Smart Object with spot color

how do I import an illustrator file with a spot color into photoshop as a smart object without it being converted to four color

Try thread http://forums.adobe.com/thread/1121348?tstart=0

Is there a way to populate an InDesign document with Pantone colors from a .csv document?

I have a CSV document that inputs copy information into various labels we have set up in InDesign, but we also have Pantone colors that we put into this document. Currently, it just imports the color number and we manually change the color ourselves, but is there a way to automatically populate the colors into the document?

Hi,
Here is some code you may want to play with
Array.prototype.contains = function ( object )
var i = 0, n = this.length;
for ( i = 0 ; i < n ; i++ )
if ( this[i] === object )
return true;
return false;
function createLabels() {
var filterFunction = function(file)
return /\.csv$/.test ( file.name );
var f = File.openDialog("Please select CSV Files…", filterFunction);
var sep = "\t";
var n = 0;
var headers = [];
var rows = [], row = [];
var doc, m, pw,pb,ph, np, tf, tfo;
var p;
if ( !f) { return; }
f.open("r");
headers = f.readln().split(sep);
while ( !f.eof ){
row = f.readln().split(sep);
row.length>1 && rows [ rows.length ] = {contents:row[0], colorName:row[1]};
n = rows.length;
if ( !n ) {
alert("No data");
return;
doc = app.documents.add();
doc.documentPreferences.facingPages = false;
m = doc.pages[0].marginPreferences;
pb = doc.pages[0].bounds;
while (n--) {
row = rows[n];
np = doc.pages.add();
doc.importAdobeSwatchbookSpotColor ( row.colorName );
tfo = {
geometricBounds:[pb[0]+m.top, pb[1]+m.right, pb[2]-m.bottom, pb[3]-m.left],
contents:row.contents,
fillColor:doc.colors.itemByName ( row.colorName ),
tf = np.textFrames.add(tfo);
doc.pages[0].remove();
createLabels();
Sorry for not using the highlighting code option but it wasn't displaying the whole stuff :\
Loic
http://www.ozalto.com

Iphone5s shooting photos with GREEN color only

My mom's iphone5s currently running iOS 8.1.3 is having a problem with the camera. A part of the photo taken will turn green, as if both the red and the blue channels were turned off. The green part will be separated from the 'normal part' by a zigzag border. This problem wouldn't go away whether the flash is on or not, whether you use the front camera or the back camera. But the color would be normal if you use panorama or if you take a video. We have tried resetting, it didn't work, either.
Anyone having similar problems? Anyone having any suggestions how to solve this problem?
Thanks a lot~

Hi r This will be a hardware fault make an Appointment at Apple Store. Cheers Brian

IMPOSSIBLE TO SELECT SPOT COLOR LAYER AS I DID WITH CS2

Hello, I'm a french user (sorry for my english). I'm used to proceed with jobs that are using PSD files with spot colors layers. With AI CS2,
a PSD file with spot color layer I was able to select each layer to change its color, its transparency or its order. With CS4, all spot channels are embedded in a single layer. It's really a problem for me. May somebody help me. Thank you. Pierre-Yves

Yes, in CS4 it is all one layer in CS 5 it is on different layers if they are spot channels.
This is CS 5 so you have to either go back or upgrade to CS 5 if this is an issue.

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.

Test: Using Crop marks in indesign CS4 with Epson 3800 Mac 10.5.7

Jun 19, 2009 9:35 PM
Crop marks using indesign CS4 with Epson 3800 Mac 10.5.7
My crop marks and pages are printing larger than my document sizes. My paper size is 13x19, so I should have crop marks at the exact corners of the page sizes. But indesign is printing the entire document larger. So my document which is 11x14.75 is now printing 11.25x15.5. All my settings are correct. So, is anyone else using an Epson 3800 with CS4 indesign having issues such as the above? And can I ask (beg) a few of you to do a test print with crop marks and let me know the results?
My workflow has been completely stalled because I can't get my pages to print the right sizes with the crop marks at the right measurements. I'm printing a photo portfolio on the Lumijet double sided paper and "when" it did work awhile back sometime several months ago, the finals looked great. I've already reinstalled both the Epson 3800 driver and the Indesign CS4 software, but the results are still the same.
So, here are my settings:
document size: 11x14.75
in the print panel:
Printer: Epson 3800
Setup: Paper size: Super A3/B13x19, scale 100% width & height, page position Centered
Marks & Bleed: Marks: "Crop Marks" checked. offset: 0, weight: .25, Bleed and Slug: Use Document bleed settings, include slug area. The bleed is 0 for top, bottom, left and right
Color Management: Document profile: Adobe RGB, Options: Indesign handles colors, Printer Profile: (A custom made profile using Xrite for the 3800 with Lumijet paper)
The settings on the Epson 3800
Epson 3800 Printer
Presets (set for the profile mentioned above)
No Color management
Sometimes, on a whim, the printer and indesign cooperate together like good little children should. But not often. And I can not conclude why they are nice to each other sometimes, but given the same detailed data at other times, they fight.
If anyone could run through a similar process using indesign with a photo layout and setting up the printer settings for both the Epson 3800 and in the indesign program and let me know their results, I would value your conclusions very much. You don't even have to waste paper or ink. Finally, after wasting so many pages of paper and of ink. I deleted the photos from the page, and printed it blank with only the crop marks for me to measure if it was coming out right or not.
Thank you for any response. And feel free to call me if you want to vent about Epson 3800's or about Indesign CS4 anytime! I'm up late.... 646 256 8853.
Thaddeus

I specified the paper size as strictly 13x19, no boarderless, no retain size. Same problem. I also did as you suggested below. The pdf document does remain true to the document. As a pdf doc. I changed the color mgmt to Adobe rgb 1998. It looks okay, but not as lively as I get when printing correctly with my color mgmt working and in sync.
Your final question about simply using photoshop. Well... I might go back to it and give up on Indesign if this is the case that it won't simply crop my documents to the sizes that I input them to be cropped as. But, I am using Indesign so that I can create a page layout that I can't do in Photoshop. My folio is about 25 or more pages with double page spreads. I am printing on a two-sided Lumijet paper and my folio was custom designed to be cut out at 11x14.75. If and when it is printed correctly, I am printing on both sides of the paper and trimming it to exact size.
It sounds as if you have exhausted the potential problems and don't have a clear explanation for why the doc isn't printing correctly in Indesign either with the color mgmt. or the document sizes. I'll try one more print using a different color profile similar enough to get at minimum, an okay print. If it doesn't print at least okay, then it isn't most likely my profile..... Okay done. Crazy. The color is inaccurate, but for some reason or another, the document size printed correctly. It measured exactly 11x14.75. What I have done during this period of time is:
First) I did as you suggested and turned the Print to Adobe PDF 9 and created a print there. I measured it and it did measure correctly. I didn't love the color, but... at least it is measuring correctly.
Second) I turned the Printer back to Epson 3800 (I'm beginning to think that this simple gesture was what caused the printer to print correctly) I didn't change any settings, but I did make sure that they were set correctly as before. The paper size was set to 13x19. When I make sure this setting is right in the "printer" dialogue for the Epson 3800, and then switch back to ID, the printer dialogue in Id changes to "Define by Printer." But I changed nothing, other than the profile to an older one that I used before. The color is still inaccurate, but at least for two prints just now back to back, the measurements were correct. What to do? Lol.
Thanks again for all of your time spent trying to resolve this issue.
Sincerely,
Thaddeus

Spot color questions

I'm helping someone prepare a logo for the printer. The file he gave me uses two spot colors. There are two issues that concern me.
1. In part of it, he duplicated an object and assigned a percentage of the spot colors to each and layered them on top of each other using "Multiply" mode. Am I wrong, or is the use of multiply modes using transparency with spot colors going to cause problems when printing?
2. When creating a gradient from one spot color to the other,the intermediate color turned out kind of a muddy grey. To remedy this, he again layered the spot colors on top of each other and created a black/white transparency mask on the top object so the underlying color would show through. On screen at least, this looks much better, but again, will it cause problems for the printer?
Thanks for any and all help.

That should be OK, so long as the logo is not converted to process colours when placed into another file, like an InDesign document. For cases such as that a process colour only version of the logo should be prepared.
It’s impossible to know without seeing the image and knowing the colours. Illustrator often shows spot colour gradients that way. This is because the intermediate colours are not a blend of the two colours, but screens of both colours, which are, by definition, less saturated.
Here are a few gradients. At the top, a simple gradient from blue to red. Below that, I duplicated the same appearance by stacking a red to white gradient over a white to blue gradient, with the gradient on top set to Overprint Fill in the Appearance panel. This will produce the same result. Below that are two stacked rectangles with solid fills. The red rectangle on top is masked with a gradient, like in the file your colleague made. All three of these will produce the same output, but the simpler one, the one less likely to cause headaches later on, is the one on top.
The bottom gradient is made using process colours instead of spot colours. Because Illustrator can mix the intermediate colours in the gradient they can be more saturated. This is impossible using only spot colours.

InDesign Workflow with spot colors only

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