I'm not experienced with creating spot colour files in Photoshop. So here's my question....I have a logo tif file a client sent as RGB that will be placed in Quark for business card setup. It looks to be a 3 colour image. I would like to set it up as a 2 colour file with a portion of the image as a screen (ie 10 %) of one of the spot colours. Can this be done in Photoshop, and if so, how?
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Spot colours
- Thread starter Pixelchik
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Hey Viol8ion,
I read your posts frequently and you're good. Tell me how you would setup a spot colour Photoshop file with the above situation and let me see if I really did it the best/most efficient way! (I know it can be done a couple of different ways).
I read your posts frequently and you're good. Tell me how you would setup a spot colour Photoshop file with the above situation and let me see if I really did it the best/most efficient way! (I know it can be done a couple of different ways).
I'm really just a hack when it comes to Photoshop! I lurk in the official Adobe forums and am always blown away at the level of expertise shwn there by some of the gurus.
From what you describe, I am assuming you want a duotone image?What I do is take an image, if it is RGB or CMYK, I change it to grayscale mode, and save as a TIF.
Now in image mode I select Duotone and select the other color. You can do a tritone, or quadtone in this screen. Now you will have separate plates for each color.
The other way to add a spot channel is slect the channels palette and select "new spot channel". You select the color you want for that channel and add your text or other elements.
The method all depends on what you are doing, the first one will give you some cool effects on photographs, including an easy way to make it sepiatone. the second would be if you are creating a 2-color graphic from scratch.
When in doubt, deny all terms and defnitions.
From what you describe, I am assuming you want a duotone image?What I do is take an image, if it is RGB or CMYK, I change it to grayscale mode, and save as a TIF.
Now in image mode I select Duotone and select the other color. You can do a tritone, or quadtone in this screen. Now you will have separate plates for each color.
The other way to add a spot channel is slect the channels palette and select "new spot channel". You select the color you want for that channel and add your text or other elements.
The method all depends on what you are doing, the first one will give you some cool effects on photographs, including an easy way to make it sepiatone. the second would be if you are creating a 2-color graphic from scratch.
When in doubt, deny all terms and defnitions.
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Depending on the logo, it's sometimes better to convert them to bitmap mode rather than grayscale. Although this sometimes looks bad on screen, it can really help when it goes to print. However, it is dependent on the logo having flat colors, and being of a reasonably high resolution to begin with. If you don't have a vector version of the logo, it's definitely worth trying.
I did a newspaper ad years ago, and I could only get a tif version of an amex logo. I thought the best thing to do would be to convert it to grayscale, and color it in Quark. However, it was so small that the line screen made the logo completely unrecognisable. Converting it to bitmap solved the problem, because the line screen restricts itself to just the black areas rather than the entire image. It also had the advantage of allowing for transparency.
Using spot channels is a really good way of working, but I have found that some printers have trouble with it, so check with them first.
I did a newspaper ad years ago, and I could only get a tif version of an amex logo. I thought the best thing to do would be to convert it to grayscale, and color it in Quark. However, it was so small that the line screen made the logo completely unrecognisable. Converting it to bitmap solved the problem, because the line screen restricts itself to just the black areas rather than the entire image. It also had the advantage of allowing for transparency.
Using spot channels is a really good way of working, but I have found that some printers have trouble with it, so check with them first.
jeffthefinn
Technical User
signal49,
can you tell me how you do that? take the 2 greyscale images and colorize them in Quark. Thank you.
can you tell me how you do that? take the 2 greyscale images and colorize them in Quark. Thank you.
Assuming you know how to get the spot colors into their own channels, copy and paste each channel into its own new file and save as greyscale tifs. Place them on top of each other in Quark and color them with the "hand" tool. Make sure the colors you use in Quark are set to spot color, too, not CMYK.
jeffthefinn
Technical User
Okay, I have 2 grayscale tiff files. One is a background file that needs to be purple. the other is just text and some stars that need to be yellow.
background
text with stars
final
When I import the tiff into Quark the dead space in the text tiff file dominates the background and appears all white. Is there a way to work around this?
I am in desperate need of help. Isn't there a way to make this work in photoshop? I can make both files appear how i want them by way of duotone, but they won't copy over into each other. Please help.
Thank you.
jeff
When I import the tiff into Quark the dead space in the text tiff file dominates the background and appears all white. Is there a way to work around this?
I am in desperate need of help. Isn't there a way to make this work in photoshop? I can make both files appear how i want them by way of duotone, but they won't copy over into each other. Please help.
Thank you.
jeff
Save the text as a bitmap
Import it into Quark
Set the background of the picture box containing the text to "none".
To get a better result with that image...
Combine them in photoshop, putting each on a different Spot channel. Adjust each channel's curve so it looks how you want.
Then save as a single file DCS in ASCII format (there are 2 ASCII options, use the one just called ASCII).
Make sure your printer knows what you have done.
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Import it into Quark
Set the background of the picture box containing the text to "none".
To get a better result with that image...
Combine them in photoshop, putting each on a different Spot channel. Adjust each channel's curve so it looks how you want.
Then save as a single file DCS in ASCII format (there are 2 ASCII options, use the one just called ASCII).
Make sure your printer knows what you have done.
Foamcow Heavy Industries - Web design and ranting
Toccoa Games - Day of Defeat gaming community
Target Marketing Communications - Advertising, Direct Marketing and Public Relations
"I'm making time
jeffthefinn
Technical User
Ok I don't know what I'm doing wrong, but when I import them into Quark (Quark 6.1) I try to set the background to "none" and it still doesn't work. I'm actually not sure I'm setting it up correctly. I'm going to "item/modify/ and then runaround set to none, but the white space is still present. Am I doing this wrong. I'm not that experienced with Quark.
Thank you for helping.
-Jeff
Thank you for helping.
-Jeff
MarcusStringer
IS-IT--Management
Make sure, if you colourise Tiff's in Quark, to tell your printer, because a lot of them don't like it one little bit. (they don't seperate out as they should).
You will get away with it if you supply them seperated PDF, but they don't like that either...
Be careful, you would be best doing all this in Photoshop.
Marcus
You will get away with it if you supply them seperated PDF, but they don't like that either...
Be careful, you would be best doing all this in Photoshop.
Marcus
I agree with MarcusStringer. I only ever colourise TIFFS in photoshop if they are pure black and white bitmaps (i.e. no levels of grey).
I just tried this with your images (after converting them to greyscale TIFFS) and, indeed, you cannot see the background image through the text image. It doesn't work.
Another option would be to set the image to overprint the background, this may not display on screen, but you should see it when printing seperations.
Seriously though.. do this in photoshop.
Foamcow Heavy Industries - Web design and ranting
Toccoa Games - Day of Defeat gaming community
Target Marketing Communications - Advertising, Direct Marketing and Public Relations
"I'm making time
I just tried this with your images (after converting them to greyscale TIFFS) and, indeed, you cannot see the background image through the text image. It doesn't work.
Another option would be to set the image to overprint the background, this may not display on screen, but you should see it when printing seperations.
Seriously though.. do this in photoshop.
Foamcow Heavy Industries - Web design and ranting
Toccoa Games - Day of Defeat gaming community
Target Marketing Communications - Advertising, Direct Marketing and Public Relations
"I'm making time
jeffthefinn
Technical User
Believe me, I would love to just do this in Photoshop. The problem is I can't seem to do it. Can someone please run me through the steps of making this a 2 color job? I know how to add spot channels, but I can't figure out how to get the text and stars into that channel. I am desperate over here.
Thanks.
-Jeff
Thanks.
-Jeff
A few ways to do that.
1: Open Background
2: Change color mode to Grayscale, then Multichannel.
3: Create a new spot channel
4: Copy Text with Stars
5: Select new spot channel and paste.
6: Create a new Alpha channel
7: Paste.
8: Go to the first channel.
9: Load the alpha channel as a selection (Select > Load Selection...)
10: Fill it with white (or just delete).
That's it. Save as a Photoshop DCS file (single file with color composite, unless instructed otherwise) and bring it into Quark. Many of those steps can be skipped if you set the solidity to 100% in step 3, but it probably won't separate correctly.
1: Open Background
2: Change color mode to Grayscale, then Multichannel.
3: Create a new spot channel
4: Copy Text with Stars
5: Select new spot channel and paste.
6: Create a new Alpha channel
7: Paste.
8: Go to the first channel.
9: Load the alpha channel as a selection (Select > Load Selection...)
10: Fill it with white (or just delete).
That's it. Save as a Photoshop DCS file (single file with color composite, unless instructed otherwise) and bring it into Quark. Many of those steps can be skipped if you set the solidity to 100% in step 3, but it probably won't separate correctly.
When saving the DCS file, be sure to specify it as ASCII rather than ASCII85 (the default in Photoshop CS).
ASCII85 has given me compatibility problems at repro, ASCII seems to work without fail.
Foamcow Heavy Industries - Web design and ranting
Toccoa Games - Day of Defeat gaming community
Target Marketing Communications - Advertising, Direct Marketing and Public Relations
"I'm making time
ASCII85 has given me compatibility problems at repro, ASCII seems to work without fail.
Foamcow Heavy Industries - Web design and ranting
Toccoa Games - Day of Defeat gaming community
Target Marketing Communications - Advertising, Direct Marketing and Public Relations
"I'm making time
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