Process Color Tint: Illustrator versus Freehand

I'm a FreeHand user from the first hour and now I'm forced to start working with AI which gives me the creeps!
In FH it is very easy to create a "tint" of a spot or process color. in AI, I only manage to do so with spot colors and not with process colors. For example, I have an object filled with 100% process color from the Swatches panel. Now I can change its transparency to 50% but that's not what I want; I want it to be filled with 50% of that same process color. In FH that's a piece of a cake. And even so in ID! why not in AI?

You need to use Global Process swatches, which are essentially process colors that function as spots.
In the Swatches palette, in List View, you should see a grey square next to the color model square (in Thumbnail view you will see a white dog-eared lower right corner of the swatch with no dot (the dot denotes a Spot).
In the Color palette you can change the tint of your Global Process color just as you can with a Spot. If you want to make a Tint Swatch, set it to some value, say 40%, and click the New Swatch button at the bottom of the Swatches palette (second from the right at the bottom).
Now when you edit your base color, all the tints change along with it.
Note: this will not magically apply the color to your art. It is best done at the beginning or while you are working, NOT as an afterthought. If you have existing art you should probably look at Live Color to get you by.
PS: Sorry if I came off brusque, but it's disheartening how often people come in here immediately bashing AI. I personally hate Freehand (and I had to use it for a long time) but it has no relevance to these discussions. And I'm not saying it didn't have its good stuff, it did - I just never cared for it compared to AI.

Similar Messages

Is it possible to import color tints and gradients in AI5?

I've got a few hundred illustrations to import from FreeHand and convert from black-only art to 4-color process. I've developed a palette of four basic colors, and I want to create and apply selected tints of them (usually 80%, 60%, 40%, and 20%). I also have a gradient that fades from my background color tint to white.
I built a master file of all these global CMYK colors and their tints applied to boxes as well as my gradient and a handful of graphic and paragraph styles. As a quick method of importing these, I just selected all my sample objects, then copied and pasted them into my convert ex-FH file.
The master colors came in, as did the the graphic and paragraphic styles, but none of the tints or the gradient.
What am I missing? Please don't tell me I have to recreate all these tint swatches by hand for every document.
Thanks for any help you can provide to an Illustrator newbie.

The ASE export worked fine. The tints are all there, in spite of the warning. I can't see any difference in the behavior of the two types of export.
Here's more information, as I swithced to working on my laptop at home:
I placed my ASE library in the art folder of this textbook project, rather than in the default location, so it would be synced with all my other work on this job and not be left behind on my work machine. That worked fine. Also, as I mentioned the ASE library, when opened in Illustrator, does in fact contain all my tints. If I want to put them all into a document's Swatches, though, I can't use the command from the flyout menu "Add to Swatches." Oh, no, that would be what I actually want and what I would expect. All that does is add the four global colors; it ignores all the tints. Instead, I have to select all the colors and tints and DRAG them to the Swatches panel. Fine. Whatever.
Anyway, in case my earlier allusion to a Colors & Styles panel confused people, it confused me too, today when I went to look for that under the Windows menu to turn it on. Turns out it was the name of the file where I built all my master colors and graphic styles, and hence became the default name of the ASE library I exported. Open that Libary, get a floating panel named Colors & Styles. Simple.
I'm slowing catching on...

Can I easily match Pantone colors using Illustrator?

Hi all,
I run a small invitation supply company.
Our primary design tool up until now has been Photoshop Elements.
We recently purchased a $6000 printer from Xerox which is the 'gold standard' for graphic arts and Pantone approved.
We also have a pantone color bridge. When I print a color using the hex code, the color looks NOTHING like the pantone swatch.
I contacted Xerox and they told me that because Elements has a very low degree of color management that we will never be able to easily color match our pantone swatches and that they aren't surprised the color is way off.
I suppose I naively figured that spending $6000 on a printer would get us easy and flawless color matching. Xerox says- not so.
They suggested investing in Illustrator and they are convinced that it will be much more likely to get us to the point that we want. Ultimately I want to be able to pick a color from the pantone deck, enter the code, and feel confident that the print will come out 100% the corresponding color.
Am I living a pipe dream?
I would like some feedback before proceeding.
On top of the financial investment, obviously there is a lot of time that my partner and I will have to spend learning Illustrator.
Any input would be great.
Thanks,
Aaron

Am I living a pipe dream?
Yes.
More precisely, you are just failing to understand the fundamental difference between spot color and process color.
I want to be able to pick a color from the pantone deck, enter the code, and feel confident that the print will come out 100% the corresponding color.
Not gonna happen, even if you do all the tedious color management setup you can.
The above assumes you are, in fact, talking about matching Pantone spot colors. (Pantone does not just publish spot color swatches, but that is the usual sense in which beginners refer to Pantone.)
A spot color is, by definition, an actual, physical, single ink which is loaded into a press. The only way to achieve your 100% pipedream is to load that actual, physical, single ink into your $6000 printer.
But that's how a printing press works, not how your $6000 printer works. It works by printing four "primary colors" of inks and then arranging tiny dots of them in proximity to each other in order to "trick" the eye into seeing them as a mixture of colors on the page in proportions which try to approximate the spot color as best it can.
But physical inks are simply not accurate enough to actually do that. There are many, many spot colors which simply cannot be replicated by mixing arrays of primary colors of inks. That's what all this "gamut" talk is about. That's one reason why spot color inks exist.
The Pantone spot color matching system is a means by which to consistently communicate proportional mixtures of actual, real, physical inks of known specific colors. All anyone (including Pantone) can do with the CMYK inks (or dyes) in a desktop printer is try to recommend percentages of those CMYK inks to best approximate a match to an actual, physical spot color ink.
It gets worse. Your monitor cannot actually match a spot color ink swatch, either. Your monitor glows. Ink doesn't. Even on tediously calibrated systems, there is more to perceived "color" than just numerical values of CMYK or RGB or HSL or Lab. There is chroma. There is reflectance. There is opacity. There is grain.
Then there's the whole matter of the incredibly context-sensitive adaptabability of human vision.
So if you are selling the output of your $6000 printer as the final product, you should not use Pantone spot color swatches as any kind of contract color specification, because your printer cannot actually print spot color inks. If you're doing color-critical work that the customer will refuse when specified colors don't match, you and your customer must specify colors which your device can actually produce.
JET

Creating spot color in Illustrator CS4 js

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

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

Trying to find process colors (CMYK) in a file that shouldn't have any...

I work in prepress. I have an Illustrator CS6 file that is made up of 3 Pantone Spot colors. I save the file as an eps from Illustrator and rip the file with our prepress software. When previewing the ripped file with our prepress software it shows me that I have process colors (CMYK) somewhere in the file. I can not see these colors visually in the ripped file so I go back to Illustrator to see if I can edit them out of the file. I use the Preview Separations tool but can't find those process colors anywhere. There are no placed images, everything is vector art. I double check any white color and make sure it doesn't have any tiny percentage of process color in it. I make sure my spot colors are indeed spot colors and not process colors. I add used colors, I delete unused colors. I can't find the CMYK being used anywhere in my Illustrator file. Any thoughts on how to clean up these "hidden" colors? This was also a problem in CS3. I'm using an iMac 2.5 GHz Intel Core i5, Mac OS X, Version 10.7.5 Thanks for any help!

I've done all you said, John, but still get the process colors appearing, just not visible. It could be a rip problem; it only happens ocassionally. I am able to exclude the unwanted colors when I rip the file but I was hoping to clear them from the start in Illustrator. It doesn't help that the Preview Separations tool ALWAYS includes the CMYK process colors even if there aren't any being used in the file. I wish Adobe would change that. Anyways, I'll continure on... I appreciate the help and if anyone else has any ideas, please feel free to add them.

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

8 steps to load a Pantone color in Illustrator - What?

Hi There,
Illustrator's way of specifying Pantone colors has driven my colleagues and I to distraction.
Firstly we go through 4 menus to select the book color, then view the swatch library as a small list, then show the find field, then search for the color, then finally load the color - 8 steps in total.
Then if you need to specify an uncoated color, you have go through all 8 steps again.
what is the proper way to load a Pantone color in Illustrator?
Any help would be much appreciated.
Cheers

I'm on CS2 and I've been using Illy since it started.
I have always found that the quickest and easiest way of making a Pantone colour is to use Pantone's Solid to Process Imaging Guide. Make a CMYK colour using the CMYK values given up in the guide, make a swatch of it and then edit the swatch to a spot colour with the appropriate Pantone name and number. It's really far less trouble than using Illy's ready-mades. Believe me :-)
As for CS3, there is apparently little to recommend it. It seems to have far too many bugs. I'm awaiting a version that works properly and it looks like it may be a longish wait. I occasionally have to revert to Illy 6 and 9 (6 was brilliant) on an old computer for special effects and filters that "improved" versions can't cope with. Illy has somehow got far too complicated and unintuitive for basic run-of-the-mill vector work. The bottom line: if it wasn't busted why did they mend it?
And yet again, where did Dimensions go to? Illy's 3D is total junk.

Cannot Edit a pantone color in illustrator

Has anyone encountered the problem of not being ablw to edit a pantone color in illustrator? I'm trying to switch it to process CMYK and the top portion of the editing box is ghosted out.
Solution?
Thanks !!
Ron

You need to have the swatch palette open > click on the element that uses one of the Pantone colors > the swatch should be highlighted in your swatch palette, panel, whatever > you should see the CMYK triangular square in the palette > click on the CMYK icon to convert the color to process > should show up as a new swatch, if not, just drag it to the swatch palette.

Pantone colors in Illustrator

Hello everyone,
I am using Illustrator 10 and send a job to my printer using an image as a Pantone color.
However they tell me that the image is CMYK and that I need to color it with the PMS color
I've indicated. I created the image in Photoshop, first made it gray sclae then created it as
a duo tone. Is this not the correct way? I've also checked in Illustrator but the only options
I see are RGB HSB and CMYK.
Can anyone help with this please? Thanks in advance.

Typically, when you create a duotone in PS, the file becomes a Spot color file, not CMYK ( for instance, Black + Pantone 340C ). Your print vendor is confused or does not understand the file structure. Yes, the Ai file is CMYK, but there will be at least 2 additional channels in the color separations in the RIP where they can select just the 2 Spot colors to print or 4 process colors ( CMYK ) + 2 Spot colors ( Pantone Black + Pantone 340C ) for a grand total of six colors. If, for some reason, the job was not estimated for 6 colors and they want to get away cheap, they can demand that you Place the Grayscale .tiff and paint that using Process color equivalents ( 100c, 0m, 69y, 15k as an example ), which is nowhere near the same as a duotone. Even if you did what they want, you painted the Grayscale image using Pantone 340C, it's not the same thing as using a duotone. There will be no Black in the image. You've done it the correct way, just confirm you are dealing with the true duotone file and not a CMYK ripoff ( which is unlikely because you'd have to convert it to CMYK on purpose ). Make sure you get a contract proof of the job so they do not mess what you've done. There is no way to create a Duotone Illustrator file, it's either RGB or CMYK. CMYK for print, RGB for web. They need to figure out their color space. Ofcourse it's CMYK, but the image is not CMYK, it's a duotone. You need to solve this before they go to press.

How do HEX codes affect CMYK Process colors?

I just received a banner for a client and their logo had two different blacks utilized within different letters of the text.
Basically, the logo has the word Barn in it and the "B" looks more brown in comparison, with the rest of the letters ("arn") as black.
Under closer examination, I discovered the "B" in the word Barn had a different HEX code than the rest of the letters even though all of the letters are all 100K black.
Color of the B: Hex #231F20
Color of ARN: Hex #010101
What really throws me off is that the black used in the letter "B" is a default process swatch in Illustrator in the Greys folder.
I'm not sure how the colors changed in my design process, but I have never taken hex code into account when designing. I view it as 100k black should print 100k no matter what. In trying to decipher what happened, as well as prevent this from occuring in the future, I would very much appreciate any explaination on this occurance.
Obviously I intended all of the blacks to print the same shade of black (again, I am not sure how the B was changed while designing the banners), but why would hex code affect anything at all? Shouldn't a color (especially a process color) print at 100k?
Also, why would the Illustrator process color swatch that is included within the defaults and listed in the grey folder print more brown than my other letters?
THANK YOU!

First before anything make sure you are in the correct file >> document color mode
RGB - Web or DIgitial Banners
CMYK - Printed Banners
There is not one CMYK value for every one RGB value, so therefore you have three 100k screenshots, with different RGB values. If you file is in document color mode CMYK you should be good for getting 100k to print. If you are in doucemtn colro mode RGB, then you will have 3 differetn values for the screenshots shown.
You ask a very good question, as this is often overlooked, and can get confusing. Remember that whatever document color mode your color panel should always match when entering numbers. Having a doucument color mode of CMYK, and entering values in RGB is useless and really should not even be allowed.

Why can't I find certain Pantone plus colors in Illustrator CS6 color books?

Why can't I find certain Pantone plus colors in Illustrator CS6 color books? For example I want to use PMS 2296C, but it is not coming up in the color swatch book in Illustrator.

Thanks!
I actually just came across the same thing in the meantime.
And it worked!
If you bought the physical Pantone books, there is a registration/serial number on the back. You can go to Pantone and register it (https://www.pantone.com/pages/MYP_myPantone/mypProductRegistration.aspx)
Then you're able to download the Pantone manager.
There are infact 336 new colors added to the Pantone Plus series. And this is where you need to get them. Once you have them, in Pantone color manager, you go to: File/Export/Adobe Illustrator/sRB. Then restart Illustrator.
Once you go back in, the new 336 colors are available!

Why do my PRO-100 black and white prints have a color tint?

I am printing on the PIXMA Pro-100 printer and sometimes, for no apparent reason (?), my black and white prints will have a color tint (usually a "redish brown"), and then when printing again... same print, same settings... the same print will be fine, neutral with no tint at all.
Any ideas why?
Also (maybe related?) I don't understand why the Photo-Cyan and Magenta ink cartridges are being depleted when I am NOT printing color, but only Black and White. Am I missing something? When setting up for printing I always make sure the "Black and White Print" feature is selected in the settings dialog "Quick Setup". Doesn't this insure that only the black and grey inks are used as long as I am not "toning"? In other words... if ONLY the black and grey inks are used, isn't the print supposed to be a neutral black and white print? Again... am I missing something?
FYI:
I am printing on Canon Pro Luster and Plus Semi-Gloss papers.
Under "Options - Color Management" I have selected:
(color handling) Photoshop Elements Manages Colors
(image space) Adobe RGB (1998)
(printer profile) Canon PRO-100 <LU> 1/2 Photo Paper Pro Luster
(rendering intent) Perceptual
Solved!
Go to Solution.

It looks like you have the settings pretty close. But the fact is all printers use all their cartridges to print B&W.
Whoa, why?
Yes it is true and the reason is this. B&W consists of 256 shades of gray. From totaly black which is 0 to white which is 256.
If you have just one, two or three cartridges to make 256 different blacks and grays all the way to white, it simply isn't possibile.
The ony thing a printer can do is, amount of ink and how long. So it makes up for this by using all it's cartridges. However, in Canon it seems like the Pro-100 tints show up more than it should. There are dedicated B&W printers but they are designed differently to accomplish true B&W.
The tint will be different on different papers. You can experiment to find the paper that does best for you. Try a more gloss type paper and see if you like the B&W. You can try Red River papers, too. They will assist you in picking a good B&W paper.
You can also experiment with filters in PSE. Adding a little blue may help. Just give it a try.
But the bottom line is you are no doing anything wrong. It is just the charchter of the beast.
EOS 1Ds Mk III, EOS 1D Mk IV, EF 50mm f1.2 L, EF 24-70mm f2.8 L,
EF 85mm f1.2 L II USM, EF 70-200mm f2.8 L IS II,
Sigma 120-300mm f2.8 EX APO, Photoshop CS6, ACR 9, Lightroom 6

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

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

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

How do I resize a vector illustration in Freehand

Hi there,
I hope someone can help me. I downloaded a vector
illustration (that I paid for), into Freehand and I am struggling
to understand how I resize the illustration in Freehand to A5.
Can someone help me? I'm not a major user of the software and
I've managed to do other things with the illustration (like
re-colour), but for some reason I just dont understand the help
when discussing how to resize.

> I hope someone can help me. I downloaded a vector
illustration (that I paid
> for), into Freehand and I am struggling to understand
how I resize the
> illustration in Freehand to A5.
>
> Can someone help me? I'm not a major user of the
software and I've managed to
> do other things with the illustration (like re-colour),
but for some reason I
> just dont understand the help when discussing how to
resize.
Transforming include scaling in FreeHand so look it up in the
help file (or manual)
To start with (copied from the help file).
Transforming objects
You can transform objects or points by rotating, scaling,
skewing, reflecting, and moving them. You can make transformations
using the transformation tools, the Transform panel, or an object?s
transform handles.
You can also apply transformations to objects as editable
effects. After a transform effect has been applied, it is always
live, so you can modify the scale and skew percentage, rotation
angle, and move distance at any time. For more information on
applying transformations as live effects, see Using a Transform
effect attribute.
Note: Extruded objects are rotated differently than other
objects. For more information, see Extruding objects.
Transforming objects freely
You can use transform handles to freely transform objects,
including text blocks, and to combine a series of transformations.
You can also use transform handles to transform an object within a
group or a paste inside, or to transform a point within a selected
path.
If transform handles don?t appear when you double-click an
object, you can display them using FreeHand preferences.
Note: Extruded objects are rotated differently than other
objects. For more information, see Extruding objects.
To display transform handles:
1 Display general preferences by doing one of the following:
In Windows, press Control+U, then click the General tab.
On the Macintosh, press Command+U, then click the General
category.
2 Select Double-Click Enables Transform Handles, and click
OK.
To transform freely:
1 Using the Pointer tool, double-click the object you want to
transform.
Eight transform handles appear around the selection, and a
circle appears at the selection?s center point. To disable the
transform handles, double-click away from the selection.
Moving the Pointer tool over and around the selection changes
the pointer (cursor) to indicate which transformation function is
available.
2 Drag the handles to transform the selection, as follows:
To move the selection, position the pointer over the object
within the selection rectangle, and drag the object to a new
position. Do not drag the center point.
To set the center of rotation, drag the center point to a new
location.
To rotate the selection, position the pointer just outside a
transform handle and drag.
Shift-drag to rotate in 45° increments.
To scale the selection, position the pointer on a transform
handle, and drag.
Shift-drag or drag a corner handle to resize proportionally.
To skew the selection, position the pointer on the dotted
outline between the transform handles and drag.
Shift-drag to constrain the skew horizontally or vertically.
3 To copy the selection as you transform it, click and hold a
handle, hold down Alt (Windows) or Option (Macintosh), and drag the
handle. A plus (+) sign next to the pointer indicates copying.
To transform an object within a group or inside a clipping
path:
1 Click the Pointer tool.
2 Double-click the group or clipping path to activate the
transform handles, and drag to transform it.
3 Hold down Alt (Windows) or Option (Macintosh) to subselect
the object you want to transform. The object?s transform handles
will be activated.
4 Press Tilde (~) to superselect objects in the group or
clipping path without moving the center point.
To transform selected points within a path:
1 Double-click a point to activate transform handles for the
entire selection, and drag to transform it.
2 Press Tilde (~) to activate transform handles for the
entire path without moving the center point.
Jukka
"If I'd like to read I'd go to school" - Butthead

Spot and Process colors - Color Mode confusion?

I have a question about how to choose colors in the New Color Swatch window. I think that I understand the difference between spot and process colors, but the dropdown options confuse me because whether I choose Spot or Process in the Color Type dropdown, the same list of libraries appears in the Color Mode dropdown. How does that work, or why does that happen? Is it a conversion? For example, if I choose Process as the Color Type, but then choose Pantone Solid Coated in the Color Mode, it shows me the colors available, but aren't the Pantone libraries for spot colors? And if I choose Spot as the Color Type, but then pick CMYK in the Color Mode, it gives the CMYK sliders. But shouldn't I be forced to pick from a Pantone library for a spot color? I would appreciate any explanations of this as I want to make sure that I pick the appropriate colors for my printed projects. Thank you!

You can create a spot color with a custom CMYK mix (and even name it the same as a library color if you want). The utility here is that you can create a custom spot color with a custom process conversion, or use your own own conversion numbers for one of the book colors if you think you have a better mix. I recently had to do a special mix for a Pantone spot conversion to fit a particualr press in order to get a better match to some other materials. That's how we handled it, though I did it by aliasing the pantone swatch to my custom spot and then changing that to process in the ink manager, rather than messing with the library color directly, which meant I could have either the custom or the book values, depending on the settings I chose, if the job went to another press.
There are, I believe, four sets of process libraries included in ID. The Pantone Process libraries are sets of stepped percentage mixes of the four process inks and have names that start with DS followed by some numbers. I think TrueMatch is a simialr system, though I've never worked with a printer who used it. Pantone Color Bridge and Solid to Process libraries are both process simulations of the Pantone Solid spot libraries. The Color Bridge is newer, and I think is largely replacing the solid to process.
You can get printed swatch books for any of the included libraries (spot and process) and you should do so for any library that you are going to use to specify color. Spot colors in particular may not render well on your monitor, and the press operator couldn't care less what you see on your screen. He's going to pull out his swatch book to verify that the color he puts on the page is the same as you specified.

Process Color Tint: Illustrator versus Freehand

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for