Not saving spot color to process

I have Acrobat 8.1.2 on Mac
In Ink Manager I convert spot color to process.
I save and close the file. I reopen the file
Spot colors are not converted
I appreciate any suggestions.
Faro

Try the acrobat forums at
http://www.adobeforums.com/webx/.3bbeda8b/

Similar Messages

[CS4-5.5][JS] Problem convert spot colors to process

Hi,
I'm trying to convert all spot color swatches to process, but for some strange reason, some weird behavior occures.
First I tried this piece of code...
app.activeDocument.colors.everyItem().properties = {space:ColorSpace.CMYK, model:ColorModel.PROCESS};
After running the script, the color icon changes, indicating the colorspace/model is changed. But when checking the color in detail, it's still a spot color.
Just as a test, I tried this piece of code...
function convertColors2Process(){
     for (var i = 0; i < app.activeDocument.colors.length; i++){
            var myColor = app.activeDocument.colors[i];
            if ((app.activeDocument.colors[i].name != "") && (app.activeDocument.colors[i].name != "Registration")){
                    if (app.activeDocument.colors[i].model != 1886548851){
                          while(myColor.model != ColorModel.PROCESS){
                                    myColor.model = ColorModel.PROCESS;
                                    myColor.space = ColorSpace.CMYK;
                                        myColor.colorValue = [50,20,30,40];
Now, the color thumbnail changes to the new color, but again, when checking the color. It's still a pantone color with the old values.
No error occures when running the script and I'm able to change the color manualy in Indesign.
How do I change the colour mode of all spot colors to CMYK?
Thanx
John

Hi Larry,
I've tried using ...
function convertColors2Process(){
     for (var i = 0; i < app.activeDocument.inks.length; i++){
                                app.activeDocument.inks[i].convertToProcess = true;
This will modify the ink manager to process the spot color as process color, but the color itself is still unchanged....
How do I modify any spot color to process color and change the colour mode to CMYK?
Thanks

DCS EPS 2.0 files not printing spot colors

I know that PMS colors have been changed with CS6 using lab color as the basis to preview colors, but I've been getting this problem printing DCS EPS 2.0 files from Photoshop in Illustrator. It does not matter if I print in CS5 or CS6 the same error occurs. I'll try to explain the process I'm using the best I can.
I create a multi color spot channel DCS EPS 2.0 file in Photoshop utilizing PMS colors. I then link that image into Illustrator and add custom registration marks and labeling to print. When I bring in the DCS file the spot colors appear in the swatch palette and are labled as spot colors, however they either come over as CMYK or LAB color in the color mode when you double click the color swatch. This is where it gets weird. When I print the file, the first spot color with a cmyk color mode will print the registration mark and the custom label I made in Illustrator, but it will not print the DCS part of the image. If the next spot color is in LAB color mode it will print as well as the third color that is in CMYK color mode will print. It seems to only effect the color being printed before the LAB color and then doesn't have an issue after that. My fix has been to manually set all color modes to either CMYK or LAB color and that solves the problem, but it seems like a bug becuase it's only an issue effecting the DCS file and not other elements in illustrator that have the same swatch color applied. For the record I've done prints with 2 printers and a pdf printer and they all have the same issue.
This may be something that cannot be fixed, but I hope my bringing it to light will help some people realize why some of their spot colors aren't printing.

No... Believe me, I suggested, and would almost always suggest high resolution PDF for any printing. Like I mentioned, I've basically always printed with PDF's but, the company he's getting printing done through apparently requires EPS. I tried another set of settings when saving, so we'll see if it works and they accept it.
My main question was why the file was coming out black and white after I save it when it's blatantly in color - and reopens in Photoshop in full color.

Finding spot color and process color

Dear all,
I used the following code to find the spot color used in the document.
var length=app.activeDocument.spots.length;
for(i=0;i<length;i++){
alert(app.activeDocument.spots[i].color);
It is showing CMYK Color as the output.
Can anyone tell me wheather it is a correct output.I want to identify all the spot color in the current active document.
Also please help me finding out the Process color used in the document.What is the diffence between these two ?
Regards,
Sanat

Sanat,
Even if a color is Spot, it still has to have CMYK or RGB values (depending on the color mode of the document) to tell Illustrator what color to display it as.
Beyond that, though, you're going to run into another problem anyway: Any Swatch that is defined as Global is going to be counted as a Spot Color. (I've been complaining about this for years.)
For example:
var docRef=app.activeDocument;
var count=docRef.spots.length;
alert(count);
for(i=0;i<count;i++){
alert(docRef.spots[i].name);
Run that in a CMYK document in which you have removed all unused palette items. You'll find that it returns [Registration] as a spot color, just because it's set to Global. Now doubleClick the Black Swatch. Set it to Global (but not Spot). The sript will tell you there are two Spot colors.
JET

Cannot change spot colors to process

Using the Swatch Options feature to change a CMYK spot color to a CMYK process color does not work. I click on the Save button and nothing happens. Cannot change global feature either. Nor does "Delete Swatches" work with multiple selections, or "Merge" Anyone else having this Swatches malfunction?

You can delete multiple swatches and you can merge swatches and if global swatches all instances of that color will change to the new color. If thye new color is cmyk swatch that will be the result for all instances of that color as long as it was applied by the fiormer swatch.
Now the idea of merging multiple swatches does work but all selected swatches mergte to that one swatch.
You might want to look at the Edit>EditColor>Recolor Art Feature.
But it is possible you have something locked on your artwork and that might prevent the change.

Hey guys, I am new to javascript and I am trying to figure out how to add two spot colors to the active document. I am trying to get it to detect weather or not the spot colors are already in the document, and if they are not, it will proceed to create th

Here's what I have so far.
var docRef = app.activeDocument;
if (docRef.swatches.getByName ("CutContour") === 'undefined') {
var spotNameCC = "CutContour";
var cmykColor = new CMYKColor();
cmykColor.cyan = 0;
cmykColor.magenta = 100;
cmykColor.yellow = 0;
cmykColor.black = 0;
// Create Spot
var spot = docRef.spots.add();
spot.color = cmykColor;
spot.colorType = ColorModel.SPOT;
spot.name = spotNameCC;
//var spotNameW = "WEED (r)";
// Create CMYKColor
/*var cmykColor2 = new CMYKColor();
cmykColor2.cyan = 50;
cmykColor2.magenta = 0;
cmykColor2.yellow = 50;
cmykColor2.black = 0;
// Create Spot
var spot2 = docRef.spots.add();
spot2.color = cmykColor2;
spot2.colorType = ColorModel.SPOT;
spot2.name = spotNameW;
Let me know what I did wrong lol I know it has to do with the detecting part. Also, if anyone knows any good websites to learn javascript I would be very thankful. I am not sure what a lot of the syntax means. Thanks!!

Never mind I figured it out. Someone posted a similar question a few months ago on here, damn this forum is awesome wish I had known about it sooner. Sorry if I wasted anyone's time.

Spot color to Process color conversion

I have a book that my boss is wanting printed. This book is filled with RGB / Spot colors. I've discovered that if I go to the "ink manager" I can check the box "All Spots to Process", but the strange thing is after doing that I check in my swatches pannel and discover that nothing was converted. What's up with that? I also found a handy script for converting all RGB colors to CMYK, but I have yet to locate a script to convert all spot to process colors in the swatches pannel. Anyone know where I can get a script for that?

If you are using OSX try this AppleScript:
tell application "Adobe InDesign CS6"
    tell document 1
        set accurate LAB spots to true
        repeat with a from 1 to count of every color
            try
                set model of color a to process
                set space of color a to CMYK
            end try
        end repeat
    end tell
end tell

Text reflow when converting from rgb spot color to process black

The setup that I'm using is a G5 Mac OSX, version 10.4.11. The InDesign application is CS3, version 5.0.3. The fonts are loaded into Extensis Font Reserve, server 1.7.4. The InDesign document has a text box using 2 different font sets. One set, Helvetica Neue, uses the rgb spot color. The other one, a mixed set of New Century Schoolbook, is used for a paragraph which is process black. When deleting the rgb spot color from the swatches and converting it to process black, the New Century Schoolbook reflows which had already been process black.
If I just select the Helvetica Neue type and change that line to process black there is no reflow problem.
When I tried this document on another Mac with the same set up there was no reflow. Is this an InDesign preference problem? Thanks

If you change the color back and then back again, do you get more reflows?
The reason I ask is that when InDesign opens a document, it holds the existing composition of stories until you apply any edit. So, it could be that what you're seeing here is that yours and your user's setups are different enough that reflow is inevitable the moment you edit the text, and changing the color counts as editing.
Dave

Strange color setting not saving correct color

I am completely baffled why this is happening. I make a simple photoshop document with the color #OF457C and do a 'save for web' and save it as a jpeg at 100%. I then open it back up from my desktop and the color has darkened and changed the hex value to #10447D. Its darker and not the correct color for my background.
Try it for yourself. Is it a color profile thing? I am using CS4 but have noticed this happening on CS3 on another computer. Does the 'save for web' pick an alternative color? I've never seen a color shift like this before.

I believe save for web uses sRGB, so if you are working in sometihng else, the conversion could cause a color shift.

Pdfs not saving in color

Hey all,
I just upgraded to CS6 and all of a sudden when I'm saving files as PDFs they save as grayscale (no colour). Any idea what's causing this? Please let m know!
Thanks in advance.
Cheers
Jon

Jon,
Unless a simple explanation of this strangeness comes up, it may be time for the list (you may very well end up with 6), and the options under 5) are quite unlikely).
The following is a general list of things you may try when the issue is not in a specific file (you may have tried/done some of them already); 1) and 2) are the easy ones for temporary strangenesses, and 3) and 4) are specifically aimed at possibly corrupt preferences); 5) is a list in itself, and 6) is the last resort.
If possible/applicable, you should save curent artwork first, of course.
1) Close down Illy and open again;
2) Restart the computer (you may do that up to 3 times);
3) Close down Illy and press Ctrl+Alt+Shift/Cmd+Option+Shift during startup (easy but irreversible);
4) Move the folder (follow the link with that name) with Illy closed (more tedious but also more thorough and reversible);
5) Look through and try out the relevant among the Other options (follow the link with that name, Item 7) is a list of usual suspects among other applications that may disturb and confuse Illy, Item 15) applies to CC, CS6, and maybe CS5);
Even more seriously, you may:
6) Uninstall, run the Cleaner Tool (if you have CS3/CS4/CS5/CS6/CC), and reinstall.
http://www.adobe.com/support/contact/cscleanertool.html

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!

My Spot Colors are not appearing in the Separations

Hello everyone!
I'm having a problem here. I've designed a piece with spot colors, but I can't figure out why they don't appear in the separations and don't export as separate plates. My exported files end up as all process colors.
In my searches on this problem, the most common solution is that the option in the Ink Manager to convert Spot Colors to Process is checked, but as I've shown in the below screen shot, it's not. It's grey out, which is even more confusing to me.
I'm stumped. Help?

If they're the same number, they'd better be the same color, right?
Actually they are not the same at all.
2905UP is a CMYK mode color and its Color Type is process, 2905U is a Lab mode color and its Color Type is Spot.
2905UP is a CMYK simulation of the 2905U solid ink color and it may or may not match depending on the press conditions. Some solid ink colors can't be matched using process colors under any conditions because they are not in the CMYK color gamut.
On screen they can also look different because the solid color's Lab definition is unaffected by the document's CMYK profile, while the bridge version is because it is a CMYK color.
Here's the solid version on the left and the bridge version on the right with with US Web Uncoated and US Newsprint profiles. The Bridge version is a terrible match under either of those press conditions.

Printing more than 27 spot colors HELP

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

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

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.

Problems printing spot colors overprinting registration color

In order to get a spot color to overprint a registration color on a proof, I have to change the spot color to multiply and then select convert all spot colors to process in the output dialog. I've never had this problem before using CS4. I'm running Mac OS X 10.5 and printing to an EFI RIP. I can see the error in the preview window inside the print dialog box in Illustrator before I sent to the rip.

Absolutely.
Remember I only have this problem when a registration object interacts with a spot color. I've tried putting either object on top and either item overprinting or multiplying.
For the record, I can get it to work by checking "convert all colors to process" in the print dialog box, but nothing works without checking this box and I would like to avoid checking this box if at all possible.

Not saving spot color to process

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