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2 color printing 1

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shootsie

Programmer
Apr 12, 2001
43
US
I have to create a 2 color image and then print it using color separation. I guess I really have 2 questions:

1) If the image is done using only 2 colors and saved in CMYK format, is it a true '2 color image' ?

2) I go to file, then print, and the color separation options are greyed out. This happens when the file is saved in both .ai and .eps format. What am I doing wrong?

Thanks!
 
That's a good question shootsie and like most things with Adobe, theres a couple of ways to skin this cat. A CMYK image is 4c no matter what. What your printer is looking for are SPOT COLORS. If your printing an american flag, (I've printed about a thousand flags in the last couple of months) its a lot cheaper to print royal blue and flag red ink than it is to print Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, AND Black to get the same jobe done. To do this you need to make 2 spot colors in your swatch pallete. Mix the disired color in your color mixer, drag the sample into your swatches, double click on your new swatch, give it the name you want to appear on the film, (ie. PMS 186) and change it from Process Color to Spot Color. Colorize your file accordingly with the new spot colors and your ready to go.

As for your separation options, you need to click on 'Open PPD' (postscript printer description) where you will need to find the PPD file associated with your printer. Do a search for *.ppd on windows machines and if your on a Mac, open your Extensions folder and look for a folder called 'printer descriptions'.

Once you've done this you can tell it weather or not to convert to process before printing, in this case you do not want to convert.
 
Thanks so much! Your post has been extremely helpful! I have just one more question:

Where is 'Open PPD'? I am using Illustrator 8 for Windows. Thanks!
 
hit ctrl+P to bring up your print dialoge and click on separation setup. There is a button on the upper right of the separations dialoge.
 
They seperation area of the print dialogue box is all grayed out. This includes the separation setup button. Is there something else I need to do to the file in order to gain these options?

Thanks again!
 
First make sure you have postscript printer. Then make sure that is the printer selected in your print dialoge. If it is still greyed out, remove the printer from your system (delete the icon in the 'printers' folder) and add the printer again but making sure to pick the 'postscript' version of the driver this time. There should be two to pick from and one should have a ps in the filename or something like that.
 
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