Spot colors in libraries?

I don't think I'm missing something, so am I correct in assuming that you can't store colors as spots inside a library?

Are you talking about the libraries in the new version?
You can't stroe spot colors in them. But you can store objects in them that have spot colors applied.

Similar Messages

  • Converting CYMK to spot color?

    Alright, i just read the 'how to get help quickly', and will attempt to not let my panic show through too much:
    I designed graphics to go into my college's literary magazine. I used only two colors: brown and green (8dc63f and 603913). However, last week he informed us (the magazine production people) that RGB wasn't acceptable, since he was going to print in something called 'spot color'. Never heard of it before, but after reasearching, I think I have a vague grasp on it: basically instead of CYMK printing process, he's just going to have two plates, one with each color, and stamp them on the pages (like screen printing). That's fine, but I don't understand how it relates to my files. So we sent the psd files to the printer's "photoshop specialist" and then yesterday I was informed that there was no way to seperate the colors into pantone plates, and that either the book was now going to be blank (thankfully the cover is going to be printed seperately in CYMK so that's fine), or we could use clipart (!!thanks for discrediting a semester of my work), or I could learn to use illustrator and redesign the whole book by monday.
    I panic, obviuosly, because after downloading the trial version of illustrator I realized that it's actually nothing like working in photoshop (where's my tablet sensitivity? this is NOTHING like 'illustrating'), and at the end of last night's terror, this is all i could produce:  http://img576.imageshack.us/img576/2993/illustrator.jpg
    Now for reference, the image I originally made in photoshop looks like this (when placed on a brown background to simulate paper): http://img829.imageshack.us/img829/7015/photoshopf.jpg
    I am very confused, because I don't understand why the printing company can seperate the illustrator file into two color plates, but not the photoshop file. Both use the same colors (Pantone 375 and Pantone 161 C, I've learned). I have no clue how to save ANYTHING in 'spot format', the only difference between photoshop and illustrator is that I can click on the pantone swatch in illustrator.
    Obviously I'm ignorant and confused, and I appologise for that, since it only makes this situation worse (who knows if I'm using the right terminology).
    tl;dr:
    I have a whole bunch of psd files that need to be converted to something called 'spot color format'
    the images are graphics to be placed in an indesign file, not to be printed on their own, so really, they have to be in the spot color format.
    Is there any way in reality to maintain the quality of these images and convert them into 'spot color format'?
    I'm still trying to understand illustrator (I'm really a painter, not a designer -- wtf is a vector), but would love to convert the psd files I already have into something usable. the printer people didn't know how, I don't know how (or even understand the issue), but maybe you will?

    I tried this with the image you posted, so I can describe in detail the steps.
    From the image menu choose Duplicate to keep the original for reference.
    From the Image menu choose Mode > CMYK Color.
    In the Channels palette, delete (by dragging to the trash there) all channels except the Yellow and Black channels.
    Double click the icon of the Black channel and in the window that opens click on the color swatch, then in the next window that opens click the Color Libraries button, and when the next window opens type quickly on your keyboard 161, make sure the desired color is picked and press OK on this and previous window to apply.
    Repeat the same for the Yellow channel but choose 375.
    Select the 161 channel (former Black) and press Ctrl + L to open Levels. Drag the middle arrow of Input Levels referring to the original to get similar darkness (to me around 0.30 looks similar shade). Press OK to apply and close.
    Hold Ctrl and click on the icon of the 375 (former Yellow) channel to load its shading as a selection, and press Ctrl + Shift + I to invert the selection.
    Make sure the 161 (former Black) channel is selected and press Ctrl + L to open Levels again. Move the right (white) arrow of the Output Levels (at the bottom) until the background matches in brightness the background of the original (to me 150 looks similar).
    That's basically it based on my quick try with your image. This example should help you understand the basic idea and from there if you like, you can further play with the image if you feel you can make it any better with these two colors.
    Regarding Spot colors, the idea is that a printing press uses 4 color plates (in Photoshop represented as the four CMYK channels when the image is in CMYK color mode) to print all possible process colors by mixing these four colors (inks). Spot colors are pure inks in cans and each spot color (ink) requires its own plate. Sometimes people print 4 process color plus an additional spot color for achieving a special effect like gold ink or pure corporate color to ensure color consistency which may not be as good when using the four colors mix. But very often, spot colors are used for printing with less than 4 plates to save money and sometimes for artistic effect with special inks.
    Following the above example converts the CMYK document to Multichannel Color mode and you have only a few file formats available for saving in the Save As options. From these, practical ones are DCS and PSD files. Both are OK for printing but you may want to confirm with your printer. However if you want to place Multichannel image in programs like Illustrator or inDesign you have to use DCS.

  • Converting CMYK to Spot Color (InDesign/Illustrator)

    I have come across a client that have sent files built in process or CMYK.  We want to make it a 2 color job (2 spot colors) but they have not chosen colors.  What is the most effective way to determine the spot color that matches the CMYK procees within InDesign/Ilustrator.  If it easier to do on one of the 2 programs I am completely open to using either.

    You can do it with Photoshop. Click the Foreground color picker, enter the CMYK values, choose Color Libraries, select the Pantone book you want to reference, and the closest ink will be displayed. Keep in mind that the appearance of CMYK depends on the document's color profile or the Color Settings' CMYK Working space if nothing is open. So, for example US Sheetfed Coated will likely return a different Pantone color than US SWOP Coated.

  • Converted spot colors is different...

    When converted spot colors to cmyk the breakdown is different in CS6
    In CS3, Cs4, Cs5, CS5.5 and my pantone spot color book converted to cmyk all match.

    PMS 187 Inside my Pantone Book c-0 m-100 y-79 k-20
    If you want the older Pantone CMYK simulations, copy the PANTONE solid to process.acb file from and older version of ID and put it in your Presets>Swatch Libraries folder and use that library.
    PMS 187 Color Bridge CS6 c-7 m-84 y-56 k-16
    Looks like you are in Color Bridge Uncoated—the coated simulation is 7|100|82|26
    PMS 187 Inside CS6 c-22.3 m-100 y-88.93 k-14.68
    This is a color managed conversion from the solid Lab values to CMYK and is dependant on your document's CMYK profile. If you change your document's CMYK profile you will get a different conversion.

  • Preserving spot colors

    Hello!
    I'm setting up a 2 color poster for printing. I have chosen my colors, Pantone 5425 and Pantone 476, from the color books.
    When I save this document as pdf, spot colors are turned to CMYK - any idea what goes wrong? Any help is greatly appreciated.

    No doubt about it Scott has this correct they are using Solid to Process as the color model.
    The answer to your question is to go back and select eh right color book. The replace the colors with a spot color swatch from either the Solid Coated, Solid Uncoated, Solid Matte, Solid Metallic or Solid Pastel Coated or Uncoated.
    These are the spot color libraries for Pantone.
    The reason you want to go back and select a real spot color is that you do not want to leave it up to Illustrator to match the ink mixture by converting process color information into a physical ink formula.
    So taking the global process color and selecting spot in the swatch option is not a good idea IMO.
    If you only have those two colors in the swatches you can change all the colors by creating a spot swatch from the proper swatch library and then merging the process with the spot.
    An easier way IMO is to use the Edit>Edit Color>Recolor Art you first select al you art and then go to Edit>Edit Color>Recolor Art and at the bottom of the dialog select the Library you want and you will get your match you can make your color group as well and they will be added to the swatch library.
    Here this might make it easy to see.
    http://mysite.verizon.net/wzphoto/Spot.mov
    I only mae the video as the OP seems a bit confused about spot colors.
    I still do not have the volume adjusted for the mic so you have to turn it up if you want to hear me stumble over my own words.
    I actually realize from making the video in this case Illustrator does an accurate job of changing the colors no matter what method you use.
    This method would be more useful if you did not have an already defined color swatch.
    I wish they would make the edit color a panel instead of a dialog.

  • 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

  • CS5.5 Can't see Pantone Color Bridge libraries!

    Hello there!
    I am using Creative Suite CS5.5 Trial version for now on Windows 7 platform. For some reason I don't see Pantone Color Bridge libraries, only the old ones, but none of the Plus Series. I was able to see these colors on version 5, but not here. Can't see them on Photoshop, Illustrator or InDesign. I wonder if CS5.5 supports these colors. I even downloaded a plugin from Pantone and Pantone Color Manager, but with no luck. I contacted Pantone, but still waiting for a response. Any help would be much appreciated, thanks!
    Aldo

    Please post in the InDesign forum. This forum is for suite specific issues only.
    Bob

  • 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

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