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.

Similar Messages

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

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.

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.

[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

11.0.03 : Problems prints in color

Hello,
I have an issue with the new Adobe Reader's version : 11.0.03.
Indeed, users in my company can't print in color. No error message, the printer just print in black & white... This is a Canon IR-ADV C2025
For information, printers are connected by network. The options when you print is OK : Color selected etc.
Tests i've made :
- Print on others printers : SAME PROBLEM
- Print with Foxit Reader : OK it's work
- Print with Adobe Reader 9.5.4 : OK it's work
So i think there's is a problem with the version 11.0.03.
I made these test on a Windows XP Pro SP3.
If you guys can help me on this, i would appreciate it...
Thanks.
Greetings,
Mike.

Thanks to this post : http://forums.adobe.com/message/4799850
I resolved my issue. "your printer settiing was set to "General" and changing this to "publication" did resolve the problem."
And it works !
Sorry, i didn't see this post before

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.

HP 5550 problems printing in color.

I bought a new iMac this past summer and have recently installed Lion. I also just bought, after a long delay, a new color cartridge for my HP 5550 DeskJet printer. The printer works fine, with one exception... it does not want to print in color. I know that it is a dinosaur of a printer, and it's no longer supported. It prints great in Black and White. Is there some setting that I am not seeing that will allow me to print in color again, or am I out of luck and stuck in black and white until I buy a new printer? Thanks!

Hello ! Thank you for posting on the HP Forums! I would be more then happy to help regarding your HP Officejet 6600 not printing color and getting stuck in pause mode. The first thing I recommend is to ensure the printers hardware is working correctly. I recommend doing a Print Quality Report to see if the printer prints in color without pausing.
To print the Print Quality Report press the setup icon on the printers touch screen display (looks like a wrench and gear). Once you are in the Setup Menu press Reports and then press Print Quality Report. The report should start printing. If the report prints almost right away with color then the printer is working correctly and you are likely looking at a software issue in the Mac. If it is a software issue then I suggest uninstalling the HP Software. After the software is uninstalled I recommend performing a "repair disk permissions" on your Mac. A repair disk permissions is a utility built in the Mac operating system designed to locate and resolve issues or errors. After the repair disk permission is complete restart your Mac computer and re-install the software.
To uninstall the HP Software click here: Uninstalling HP Software
To perform a repair disk permission click here: Performing a Repair Disk Permissions
To Download the HP software click here: Officejet 6600 Full Feature Software and Driver
Once the install is complete I recommend checking for software updates on the Mac. To check for software updates click the "apple" icon at the to left and click on "app store". In the app store you can click the "updates" icon at the top of the window. Install and Hp or printer updates. After any updates you should restart the computer. Please post back and let me know how things turn out!

Sudden problems printing in color from photoshop?

I just put in new ink cartridges in my HP officejet printer and suddenly I'm unable to print color from photoshop. I can print color in other programs but just not photoshop. I'm using OS X 10.8 and an old photoshop version CS2. It worked fine until I changed the cartridges.
Anyone have any ideas?

Okay, that's odd. Well, most of the major things in Photoshop are similar between Mac and Win.
As for the reset, I am wondering if it works with CS2 or not. Edit: yes it does work on CS2. Please try the other Option key on your keyboard. Also, be sure the print menu is the active window.
First try closing print and re-opening while holding the spacebar. Also be sure the printer's drivers are up to date.
The next step is a Photoshop preference reset: Hold Ctrl+Alt+Shift/Cmd+Opt+Shift as you initiate Photoshop's startup. Select "yes" when asked if you would like to continue with reset.
Benjamin

Print Spot Color Separations

OK. I had Pagemaker, CS2 and now have CS4 on an XPP machine. I print to plate. When I want to print separations, the area is grayed out = I can't select any color to print separately. Plus, up above, I can not choose Separations to print, it's also grayed out and not available. Just RGB and gray. I print to a HP LJ5000 PCL & PS printer and need (prefer) to print in non-PS mode (PCL driver). Pagemaker could do this; and I tweeked something in InD CS2 to make it work. Can't make it work here in CS4. HELP! Is it true that ONLY the PS driver will work to print separations??? The PS driver does not work well for me or for plate production. Is there a way around this??? TIA.

Oh, no! So you are remarking that I should print to the PDF driver and then print the PDF. Two (big) step process? Yeah, I guess that's a good work-around. Isn't there another way, tho'? Please! I thought there was some sort of Color Management setting that might allow this for the job. Yes? Can someone also tell me Why separations are only allowed for a Post Script printer driver? (That may be too much to ask.) Thanks.

Need to PRINT with PANTONE spot colors - PROBLEMS

Hello!
This is my first post here.
I am from Poland and I designed artwork for a 12" vinyl. It is going to be pressed in the US and so will be the cover get printed there.
This is my first abroad work... So far when i wanted to use Pantone for printing i prepared the artwork in CMYK and just noted (for the printer) which Pantone spot colors should be used. This is how it works here in Poland. But when i sent my artwork like this to the US printing plant - i got a reply that this is wrong and i need to prepare the files for spot color printing...
I prepared the artwork in Photoshop CS4 and i put it on a template for printing in InDesign CS4.
Meanwhile i got to know how to make new spot channels in Photoshop, but when i want to place that file on the template in InDesign - i get a message saying that i can only import RGB or CMYK files...
I Need Your help!

yeah, i knew that.
i think i sorted it out now.
i think my mistake was that i tried to import PSD files. But later on i saved them as EPS files i could import them to InDesign with the spot colrs.
We'll see what the printing plant says.
Should be good now.

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

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

Spot colors and Transparency causing Overprint knock-out

Whenever I create a PDF from InDesign (CS3) I get missing artefacts/items on print production.
It is caused by a transparent PSD file being laid over a spot color.
I print a /ps file and then Distill to Press Quality.
Overprint preview in ACrobat Pro shows what I need by overprint off I lose info - this causes immense problems at all the pre-pre studios I use.
Any pointers to a cure/reason?
(more info if needed upon request)

For one, please do not go through PostScript , rather export to PDF directly. When doing so, you may want to do the transparency flattening either during PDF export (i.e. in Indesign) or later on in Adobe Acrobat Pro.
Going through PostScript/distilling adds extra potential for issues.
Next, any print service provider who is not in a position to deal reliably with overprints, does not deserve a contract from a high profile client. Rather, find print service providers who are up to the task. A decent print service provider should produce a result that is visually very very close to what you see in Adobe Acrobat Pro having turned on Overprint Simulation and Output Preview. If the output from a print service provider suffers from missing portions or other artifacts (as those that can be seen when Overprint simulation and Overprint Preview are turned off in Acrobat Pro) then that print service provider is simply failing.
Finally - as pointed out by Jon, the best approach is to keep the transparency in your PDFs alive and find print service providers that can deal with it (because for example they have a workflow based on the Adobe PDF Print Engine).
Olaf Druemmer
PS: ... or would you accept a week old bread rolls from your baker?

After saving a PDF with a Spot UV layer, all of the highlights and detail under the spot color are flattened in Overprint Preview. What am I missing here?

I'm attempting to print some business cards with a Spot UV coating. I have a layer above the artwork with a spot color (set to green per the printer's request). Underneath is a logo, essentially a red circle with some highlights and depth. My issue is that, after exporting a PDF, all of the highlights and detail on the red circle disappear in Overprint Preview (it's there when I hide the Spot UV layer, but missing when I hide the Spot Color). What can I do to retain that information?
Thanks!

Let me know if you need different screen grabs. Thanks in advance.

Problems printing spot colors overprinting registration color

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for