Newbie question about spot color...
That's one way, but not ideal, because there's a chance that sometime, someone will print it in Cyan ink. Best to create swatches in InDesign and Illustrator (if linking to Illustrator files) that are named correctly and look close to the proper ink.
In the Swatches panel select New Color Swatch. Set Color Type to Spot, name the swatch, and colour it appropriately. Under Color Mode there is a large selection of swatch libraries including the most common spot colours used. If you're using Pantone ink, make sure you pick from the appropriate library (Matte, Uncoated, or Coated) and that the word ''Process'' is nowhere in the library chosen.
Newbie question about spot color...
If the entire document is going to be printed with the spot ink, i.e. it is a one-color job, you can also just use black and tell the printer which spot color you want (but of course it will look black on the screen while you edit).
It really doesn't matter what swatch you use for a spot color, as long as you use only one for each, and both you and the printer know what color ink belongs on the press.
Peter
A simple way to use the CMYK plate colors for spot color is to include a slug identifying the ink, and make sure the slug text is ''colored'' the correct plate color. That is, if you're printing black and a Pantone color, it can be quick and simple to use the K and C plates, and include a slug on the K plate that says BLACK (just to be sure) and one on the Cyan plate that says PANTONE 321 (or whatever.
I've used this for years and years both to generate plates more quickly and with fewer steps and errors than trying to define a spot color correctly, and in apps that didn't handle spot color separations well.
Thanks, everyone for responding. If I understand spot color correctly, the press using the K channel for black and the C channel for the spot color. Is that more or less correct, generally speaking?
One follow-up question: if I place a PDF into an ID document and the PDF uses black and one additional color, why do I get complaints that the printer won't recognize the PDF? Why can't I create a PDF that uses a spot color? I don't think I'm asking ths question correctly, but the fundamental question is: how do you place a PDF into an ID document that uses spot color correctly? I know I'm delving into technical details, but I'm interested.
Thanks.
%26gt;Is that more or less correct, generally speaking?
Yes, generally speaking. Each color needs to be isolated on a single plate, and it makes no difference what those plates are called, as long as both you and the printer agree on what the names mean. The advantage to using a spot color swatch from one of the libraries is that your screen representation will look something like what the printed output should be (but never rely on the screen for spot colors, use a swatch book, because many spots can't be represented accurately in either CMYK OR RGB.
%26gt;Why can't I create a PDF that uses a spot color?
PDF can contain spot colors just fine, but they need to be spot colors in the original application, and the export or print to PDF that generated them must not convert them to CMYK or RGB.
Lots of things can LOOK like they are only one color, but in fact are RGB or CMYK mixes. This would be particularly likely with content created in Photoshop, where you must use a spot channel or multi-channel mode of some sort to work with spot colors.
%26gt;why do I get complaints that the printer won't recognize the PDF?
Can you explain what you mean by this?
Peter
Thanks, Peter. I think I've got a handle on it now. I was having a hard time understanding why a PDF that looked like it contained only one color was not really a spot color. I now know that it was because it was really CYMK or RGB, not spot color. Thanks.
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