Draw 10 changes tint fills of objects with spot colors on save

[chambo33]

I am a textile screenprinting artist. I use a lot of spot color designs with spot colors. When I need to create a halftone of a color (let's say, "Corel Black&quot, I do a fountain fill and change the tint to a percentage of the color (let's say, 30%). The art is fine while I still have the file open. I can print, and the list of available colors to print as separations will include "Corel Black", with the 30% portion of the design printing as a halftone on the same page with the solid "Corel Black", based on my advanced settings. However, if I save the design, close the file, and reopen it, the object that was "30% Corel Black" is now "100% Corel Black(1)", and is listed as a whole separate color in the print separations list. This happens on all objects with the exception of Text. How do I fix this?? It's extremely annoying when I can't remember the exact percentages I used on the original design, and I have to refill the objects when I open the file later. There has to be an easy solution. This happens with any spot color, not just "Corel Black".

 

[chambo33]

I accidentally typed "fountain fill" when I meant "uniform fill".

 

[javabearSTL]

"Corel Black" is not a PMS color, therefore it is not a "spot color" and doesn't do "screens." Do you have the same problem when using a PMS Black?

 

[chambo33]

Very strange....
Using what you said, I did a little problem solving test. Instead of choosing a Pantone Spot color directly from my "Custom Spot Colors" palette that I use all the time, I chose the SAME colors from the actual Pantone Matching System palette directly. I don't have the same problem when I do this. What is up with that????
I like using my Custom Spot Colors palette on my workspace, because I always choose from the same 20-30 colors. All of my artwork is 6 colors or less. Is there any way I can get around having to have the huge PMS Palette open??

 

[javabearSTL]

You can add spot colors to your "default" color palette very easily - it's what I do so, like you said, I don't have to have the full PMS palette open. The way I do it is to make an object and fill it with any color. I then double-click on the swatch that shows my current fill color which will bring up the edit/fill dialog... i switch over to the PMS palettes, select my color (and you can also specify a screen here if you choose) and hit the ADD TO PALETTE button. I'm guessing that your custom spot color palette is not totally filled with PMS colors. The "default black" in the default Corel palette is basically CMYK/Greyscale (I think it's K100 and all the shades are, like, K90, etc).

You didn't mention what version of Draw you're using. V11 does have the latest Pantone swatch updates. Older versions, you'll see a color shift due to Pantone reconfiguring the color mixes (especially if you're going from spot color to process color).

 

[chambo33]

I'm using Corel Draw 10. Okay, here's the thing...when I use let's say a blue "Pantone 286" directly from my "Custom Spot Colors" palette (my userinks) and make it any percentage tint besides 100%, it looks great, prints on the same plate as the 100% Pantone 286, etc. Then, if I save it, close it, and reopen the same file...the colors of the objects that were less than 100% Pantone 286 are now completely separate colors such as "Pantone 286(1)", etc. and they are on totally separate plates when I print. It's something that's lost in the save/open process. However, if I go into the "Fixed Palettes" and choose the same color Pantone 286 from there, do the percentage thing, etc. Save, close, reopen, there is no problem. It looks exactly like what I saved, and the lower percentage colored objects still say "20% Pantone 286", etc. I feel like I'm going crazy.

 

[javabearSTL]

dunno what to say as I've always just added the spot colors to my existing default palette and never had a problem. Could be that you've got a corrupt profile - hold down the F8 key on startup till it asks if you want to override your settings and revert back to factory default... that may fix the problem - one caveat though, any customization to the app that you've done will be lost. You're not, perchance, mixing PMS palettes are you? I.e., you've got something you did back in v7/8/9 and those colors were added to your palette back then... and then new colors are being added from the newer pantone palette? This might cause multiple "versions" of the same color due to the differences in the PMS palettes over the years.

 

[chambo33]

Solved the problem. I created a new palette with a new name. Made it my default. Went and found all of the VERY SAME colors that were on my old custom palette, and added them directly from the Pantone Matching System palette (the same way I originally created the old custom palette, btw...1 1/2 years ago). All of them work correctly. Maybe it was a corrupt palette file, as you suggested. Trial and error, it's the only way to figure out a problem. Thanks for your help! I wish I had found this message board 1 1/2 years ago!!!!

 

[Brushman]

Whenever strange things start happening in Draw start the programme and keep F8 pressed and answer yes when prompted, this will reset factory defaults of your workspace (so save customised ones first)this seems to cure a vast array of odd behaviour. I'm a new guy here so I'm sorry if this is already well known solution