Metallic swatches Pantone color bridge

[thisanthrope]

Hello, I having trouble finding out why eps files made in Adobe Illustrator that have color bridge spot metallic inks assigned to them are not coming over correctly when the eps is then linked / placed into Adobe Indesign. We need these swatches to act the same way as the standard swatches do for when these Indesign files are sent through a Rip to produce plates for a press.

If we send the Indesign files through a Rip with the swatches as they are now the Rip (Rampage) wants to convert these swatches into CMYK. To resolve this we have been having to use Pantone solid coated swatches for all metallic and fluorescent inks just to get plate seperations as spot colors. Below is a screen shot of the swatch pallet in Adobe Indesign from an eps brought over from Illustrator. As you can see the standard Reflex and 192 Red are normal but the 873 Gold and 877 Silver have some sort of square box extension added to them. If we send this file through a Rip then the Red and Reflex will separate as normal Spot but 873 and 877 will be converted to CMYK.

I've emailed Pantone but no reply. Any dealt with this issue?

 

[jmgalvin]

Are you sure that the Pantones are not really process? If the Pantones is changed from spot to process in AI or INDD the name does not change unless you tell AI or INDD to give the cmyk values. A swatch can say Pantone XXX but really be process

If it’s spot there will be a little circle in the gray box next to the swatch. If process the gray box will just be plain. You can also double click the swatch to see if it’s process or spot.

Your print dialogue for separations or preflight will also tell you if they’re spots.

You might want to open the eps in AI and see what the swatch says – process or spot. Spot will have a little black mark in the lower right corner of the swatch in AI.

Don’t try to change a pantone process to spot in INDD unless the color was originally created in INDD. If the eps came from AI, use AI to change it to spot.



Using OSX 10.3.9 on a G4

 

[thisanthrope]

As you can see in the screen shot I provided the swatches are spot with a little circle in the gray box next to the swatch.

Keep in mind this is an eps made in AI. (swatches are spot with black dot in lower right of swatch)

Placed into Ind.

Once in Ind. the separation preview does acknowledge that they are separate spot swatches, but they have this extra extension after their name in the swatch palete. It's not until the Indesign eps is sent to a Rip that they are then converted to CMYK. If I change the swatches to Pantone solid coated this does not happen.

 

[dropkickmurphy]

My "edumacated" guess for whats going on when you output it that your rip doesnt like the squares in the name, like an invalid character. So it comes to a plate with a name that uses a character it cant read or use and it disregards it and then uses the alternative colour space for the pms, process colour.

I just tried to redo the scenario and made a file in InDesign with invalid charecters in spot names and when I distilled it the plates would convert to PC. You could fix the plates in acrobat with pitstop easy enough but you loose the plates on distill.. bork bork bork..

You'll need to go back and fix the problem where the improper colour names are being placed into files. Someones stuffed is messed up, whether it be whos giving you the files or if your making them yourself.

Cheers,
Dropkick Murphy
______________________________________________
Alcohol & Tobacco Quality Assurance Specialist

http://www.bancomicsans.com