Map Spot Color

OK so this used to be an option in the convert colors dialog, anyone know where it went in acrobat 9+ ?

There's a few things I can think of that might trigger this type of shift:
1.) The other computer is using Pantone Color Bridge as a default, whereas your computer is accessing the Illustrator installed Pantone Color System or vice versa. The "Bridge" CMYK equivalents have been reformulated and may or may not be different, depending on the actual Spot color.
2.) The other computer is using different color settings than yours or vice versa. This could also include system settings in ColorSync and/or Adobe's Bridge application, as well as Illustrator's application color settings.
It could be just a matter of confirming all of the settings are set the same on all computers and then see how the file behaves.

Similar Messages

Map Spot Color to Another Spot Color in Acrobat 9?

In Acrobat 8 I could easily map one spot color to a different spot color using the "Convert Colors" action drop down menu. With a few clicks, all page items that were colored with Spot 1 could be converted to Spot 2 using this process. I use it all the time on an hourly basis to create the press sheet layouts for our PDF workflow.
However, in Acrobat 9 the "Convert Colors" does not give me the "Map to ......" option any longer.
Simply going to the Ink Manager to make an alias does not change the colors of the elements either. I have noticed that if I first go to "Convert Colors" and then click "Ink Manager" and then alias the spot x to spot y, it will correctly change those items. But this is requires a lot more effort and keystrokes to do something that was very simple and easy in Acrobat 8. [By the way, if I went to Ink Manager directly (not through "Convert Colors") it would NOT change colors.]
I know that I could do this in Pitstop but that would take more keystrokes and the way I do it in Acrobat 8 is much quicker and more efficient.
Am I missing something with Acrobat 9? Can someone tell me how to achieve this in an easier way using Acrobat 9?   How about in Acrobat 10 - is it any easier?
Thanks for your advice.
Glenn

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

Illustrator CS 3 - 3D problem - top color white, shadow spot color

Hello,
Is is possible to make my 3D square with the top in white color and the shadow in spot color? I can not do it myself. I am working on this logo right now. Erwin

Let me see… there is a problem you might not be thinking out clearly concerning spot colors and adding white as a plane.
First a spot color has a limitation when it comes to shading itself it actually requires black to be convincing as the shading color!
If you print it flat and 100% solid it will not appear 3D. Adding a solid white to one side would require it take on the shading of the cube so it will not be flat.
To make one side white you have to create a rectangle path fill it with white and save it as a symbol then go to Map Art feature in the 3D dialog and select the plane you want and the white rectangle symbol you just made.
So you need a spot color plus black

Merging Spot Colors in Distiller

I am using ArcGIS (ArcINFO License) Production Line Tool Set to output an EPS file containing about 15-16 individual spot colors. These spot colors are divided into 5 different main colors: Black, Gold, Magenta, Blue and Green. Each plate refers to a specific tint percentage (For instance, there is a 100% Black, 49% Black, 25% Black, etc.) What I need to do is to merge all the Blacks, Golds, Magentas, etc. into the five main colors as individual plates. Can this be done in Adobe Distiller? Any ideas on how to do this?
Thanks.

Also check the EPS' are they vector or raster separations? Haven't used PLTS but when I was looking intro setting overprints with Arc I found the only way was with PLTS but this generated raster files for the plates. If they are raster you may be able to combine in Photoshop with an action without any degradation.
One thing to keep in mind layering these separations is what happens when a tint overlays a solid ink or vice versa?
But I'm pretty sure you should be able to output the tints on the same fileWe have a meeting with ESRI's PLTS product manager tomorrow so while I won't be able to go into depth I'll run it past him.
Also I wouldn't recommend Illustrator due to the complexity of maps that are usually output via this method and also the fact some postscript objects sometimes go a bit haywire when opened into Illustrator and these are often things not immediately apparent.

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

Can I have "All spots to process" checked at all times, even for new spot colors?

When I check “All spots to process” in the pdf export settings and save my settings the settings remember that I've checked this option. But, if new spot color objects using new spot color swatches are added to the document (or another document) and I go into the pdf export settings the check mark has been changed into a dash (with the actual checkbox highlighted) – signifying that only some of of the spot colors will be changed to process colors during export. I absolutely fail to see how this could possibly be seen as a feature and not a bug … if the user has checked “ALL spots to process” wouldn't the user expect ALL spots to be converted to process colors, rather than just any spot colors that happened to be in the document that happened to be open when the user first checked that checkbox and saved that setting?
Am I missing something here? What's the point of even having that checkbox as part of your saved export settings if it doesn't include any other spot colors than those used when saving the settings?
What's the point of having settings if you can't trust them, and still need to manually "override" them every time?
I see that some users have taken to writing scripts that instead turn all spot colors in the swatch panel to process colors, and while I commend them for creating that workaround, I'm still pissed at Adobe for not getting the function right.
If this is a feature, who is it for? People who want to add just certain spot colors and turn those into process colors rather than turning all spot colors into process colors are surely better off doing that in the swatches panel, where they're in total control of what's what. And if they don't want to "permanently" change their spot colors to process colors, and prefer to (temporarily) convert them during exporting/printing only, they can do that in the ink manager. But when someone checks convert "All spots to process" couldn't we safely assume they really want ALL spot colors to be converted and not just some of them? I mean, the way that checkbox behaves now, it's like it's a button and not a checkbox. As in: hit the button "All spots to process" to switch all currently viewed spot colors to process colors in the ink manager, OR check the "All spots to process" checkbox to always convert ALL spot colors to process colors during exporting/printing.
Anyone got any light to shed on this?
And is there a way to actually get the advertised behavior, because if you have to run a script every time you export/print you might as well just manually select the checkbox every time instead, but either way it's just really unnecessary as far as I'm concerned … Adobe should get the feature right instead.
If you save a setting and recall it, it shouldn't be possible for that setting to change into something else (in this case changing a checkmark to a dash).
Clearly CMYK printing is the norm, so for most users it would make a lot of sense to have the "All spots to process" checked most of the time, and then you just go into the swatches panel or the ink manager and set things correctly for those print jobs that really do need spot colors.
I myself am not one of those who add spot colors to my swatches unless I'm really using them as spot colors, but I often work with magazines and folders featuring adverts made by whoever, and typically there's always at least one advert that features spot colors, and therefore it would be very nice if the "All spots to process" feature actually worked as advertised without any required actions from me.
We stopped sending ads back to the advertisers for adjustments a long time ago, unless we absolutely had to, because there were so many things wrong with so many ads that it was simply too much work to write back and explain everything to people who most of the time didn't even understand what we were talking about. We found that it was usually a LOT faster and easier to just adapt the ads ourselves, as long as it was something that could be worked out really quickly from within InDesign itself, which pretty much included most typical errors.
But with this feature I find Adobe is trying to make my job harder rather than easier, and it's pissing me off. Arrrghh… ;-)

But It's not a preference it's a shortcut
It's a bad joke, is what it is. ;-)
So, why in your opinion should it be presented the way it is? I keep saying in it's current functionality it shouldn't be presented the way it is (and that: if it is, it shouldn't work the way it does). If it's not a preference or even a proper checkbox, why present it that way?
If you put it right next to the table at the top of the window (so that it's directly associated with that information, rather than information right above it) and just called the checkbox “Spot(s) to process” and had it only visually reflect the content of the sleected spot colors in the table, then I'd see your point with likening it to the “Hyphenate” checkbox.
If a story has two selected paragraphs that uses two different hyphenation settings then the checkbox should present the way it does now, but if you hit the checkbox so that both paragraphs now use hyphenation and create a third paragraph inbetween the two previous ones it better inherit that setting and not turn off hyphenation for the new paragraph (unless of course there's a defined next paragraph style that switches to a style with hyphenation turned off). And if that checkbox said “Hyphenate all paragraphs” instead, then I would expect it to do just that, and not just the selected ones, and not just the current paragraphs but quite literally all paragraphs even newly created ones – otherwise it doesn't do what it says it does, and simply shouldn't be labeled that way.
And seriously bad interface design aside, you'd have to rename “All spots to process” to “Switch all currently displayed spot swatches listed in the table above to process” to actually describe what that checkbox does. So even if you're a fan of the current functionality, as opposed to one that actually lets the user set and forget a setting like that, and think it's better that users manually check it repeatedly (which I'm not saying that you are, but you're not giving me any feedback suggesting you even see my point of view with any of this, so what do I know?), then why wouldn't you still support an interface that visually matches/signals that functionality better? If it's a “Select all” checkbox supplementing a table containing a column of checkboxes, then present it that way. Don't put it at the bottom of the window next to another checkbox that works just like a regular checkbox and label it “All spots to process” – because that way you are signalling a different behavior.
Seriously, if I was to do design using the same mentality that Adobe uses when designing their user interfaces it wouldn't be long before I lost all clients. There's a lot to be said for de facto monopolies, I suppose. Oh no, there's nothing wrong with the design, just as long as you accept it on it's own terms and don't compare it to anything relevant, and just as long as you give people enough time to understand and accept it … and surrender to it.
For real … I wouldn't win one single pitch that way.
Today's threads have in many ways been a thorough reminder of the following quote from the second link I provided:
Is there an Internet rule yet stating that even the most obviously indefensible mistake will eventually be defended by someone somewhere? Awful marketing efforts get explained as genius viral campaigns, broken features become solutions.
And whether or not you're able to see my point of view or not is really besides the point too.
The real point was, and remains to be:
That for those who receive lots of ads or other external files that may or may not contain spot colors it would be far more useful to be able to set a checkbox to always convert all spots to process when exporting, than the current functionality is (and I'm not suggesting eliminating the current functionality, just change so it's presented like what it really is, and then just let that separate checkbox do what it says) … causing unnecessary manual action on the user's behalf shouldn't be the business of Adobe – preventing it should.
And here's further reading on the subject of bad Adobe interface design for those who might feel so inclined. ;-)
Cheers!

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.

Should the print company I use be able to change a file to spot color for me?

I recently sent a document in to a major print company to have a folder printed. The document was created in Illustrator using only two colors. They said they could not print it because it was still more than two colors and that I needed to change it to a two color document using Pantone Spot Color.
I've never had to do that for a print company before but I've also never had a two color project before. I opened the file back up and selected my objects and "recolored" the work and deleted all the swatches aside from the two colors I needed that were now Pantone Spot Color (HSB). It literally took me 2 minutes.
The reason I am asking is because they pretty much said that I don't know what I'm doing, which to a designer is completely insulting. We all do new things from time to time but that is an insult. Shouldn't they, a large print company with years of experience, know how to do this for me? They had the original design file.. Maybe they don't know what they are doing?
Any clarity on as to why I needed to do it and not them is greatly appreciated. Also.. any direction as the best way to use spot color over cmyk is appreciated too.

...which to a designer is completely insulting...
What's so special about "a designer"?
Prior to the mid 1980s, designers could get away with prima Donna attitudes, because they (or their employers) were paying pre-press "color houses" around $350 per hour to tweak colors to sooth their oh-so-erudite discernment and hyper-developed color sensitivities, and to gain reimbursement for the $100 per plate lunches on proof-check days.
That all changed when designers (and their employers) got tired of paying those fees and took on the responsibility for the technical side of assembling their designs into something printable. That was the so-called "desktop revolution" and "revolution" was not a bad word for it. It turned a huge industry on its head. Color houses which didn't adopt PostScript devices and workflows were soon dropping like flies--and so were designers who didn't climb down off their lofty pedestals and buckle down to learning the technical realities of what they were doing.
Don't be insulted, but the simple fact is, you still don't know what you're doing if you think converting any given process color job to a two-spot job is "just a couple of minutes' work." Only in the very simplest designs would it be as simple as re-defining a couple of process Swatches as spot color Swatches.
In Illustrator in particular, doing so won't even work if the original Swatches were not originally defined as Global Swatches.
If those two process Swatches were used in any Blends, converting them to spot will likely not update the intermediate steps of the Blend. In earlier versions of Illustrator, the same problem applied to grads.
You can often get away with not having properly trapped the file with process swatches, because there are potentially four component inks which may be shared between adjacent different-color objects. Spot inks are not so forgiving. Trapping is essential if the two spot colors touch.
So you really expect a printer to just have a policy to do that for you? And thereby bear responsibility for anything they may misinterpret or overlook that may cause a registration sliver on press and thereby loose every bit of profit on the printing (which these days is cut-throat competitive)?
No. It's your responsibility to build the file correctly. The printing houses I use know better. They know I would have a coniption fit if I ever caught them modifying one of my files. They know they are to return any problem file to me for correction.
JET

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".

How can I rasterize a spot color file without creating "border" pixels between areas that are adjacent to each other but should not be overlapping?

We use Illustrator to create circuit layouts. For part of our process, we create an image of all of the layers using spot colors to show the printed layers overlapping each other. We then rasterize the file and send the image through a Matlab routine that performs some analysis of the circuits based on the colors of the pixels.
In some cases, I have created images with areas next to each other, but not overlapping. When rasterizing the image, the rasterizing process appears to treat the borders as overlapping and creates a single pixel wide border between the 2 areas when there is none. This is playing havoc with our Matlab routine.
I can manually go in and remove the rasterized border, however on some projects, this is a very lengthy process. Has anyone experienced anything like this, or have any ideas on how to prevent this?

Would align to pixel grid help?
Left is not aligned, Right is aligned to pixel grid

How to find out that an art item has spot color using script?

Hi all,
I have a number of art items on a document, some of them are filled with spot colors and some of them are with process color.
Is there any method by which I can find out which color type(spot or process) is applied to the selected art item?
Thanx in advance...

Thanx for the reply carlos....
But I am not able to use "icolor.typename". There is nothing like "typename" showing in the properties.
I am using it like this:
var app:com.adobe.illustrator.Application = Illustrator.app;
                                        var pathArt:PathItem;
                                        var allPaths:PathItems           = doc.pathItems;
                                        if ( app.documents.length > 0 && doc.pathItems.length > 0)
                                                       var colorValue:com.adobe.illustrator.Color;
                                                       //Fill color to the selected object.
                                                       for (var i:int = 0; i < doc.pathItems.length ; ++i)
                                                                      pathArt = allPaths.index(i);
                                                                      if(pathArt.selected)
                                                                                     colorValue = pathArt.fillColor;
                                                                                     trace(colorValue.typename);              //But colorValue doesn't show any property like "typename".
Do am i missing some thing?
Thanks...

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 ]%%

Adobe Acrobat 9 Pro 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

Acrobat will always show the CMYK framework - even if there's no CMYK in there. You'll also notice that if the file contained RGB, calRGB, LAB etc - it also shows in the Output Preview as CMYK since it's in simulation mode (enough of that for now)!
You might want to use the SHOW feature in Output Preview or even use a preflight profile to double check ...
Cheers,
Jon

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

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

Map Spot Color

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