Spot colour in grayscale image

[macuser453787]

It should matter to a degree, since the U and C books are viewed as different colors technically to the software, they separate as two plates, not one, unless pre-press looks for not just identical duplicate colors, but also near-name duplicates and replaces one of the colors, such as the U, and makes all of the them the same, like C. Its a headache for pre-press, and takes time, which takes money, your money.

My goal in all the jobs I send to print is that the pre-press people would have a very straight-forward experience with my files. Best complement I ever got from a printer was that the files I gave them were the simplest and cleanest they ever saw. The goal is always to make as little confusion for the pre-press and printer as possible. Makes your life easier, your time-billing from them cheaper, and your relationships with your venders stays strong, which often translates into preferential pricing over time.

Perhaps I wasn't clear. I know U and C are viewed as different colors, and yes I know that it matters how a color is named (that is, PMS 185 C vs. 185 U for example), and that there must be consistent naming of a spot color for correct seps in a spot color job. I have worked as a Prepress tech and graphic designer for many, many, many years and have corrected several such instances of the issues you're referring to.

What I'm saying is that if one of the colors used in a given spot color job is, for example, PMS 185, then it really doesn't matter whether the color is named "Pantone 185 C" or "Pantone 185 U" or "Hey this is a red spot color" or any one of countless other names, so long as the pressman knows that the actual Pantone color to print for that sep is Pantone 185. And in my case I choose to use "Pantone 185 C" as a name because I prefer that over "Pantone 185 U" as a name. That any spot color must be consistently named and applied through a given job for correct color seps was assumed in my previous post.

Now, don't take that to mean that I think it's okay to use generically named spot colors, because I don't. I merely stated it that way to make my point clear. I think it's sloppy to name spot colors that way. I don't use them that way and I don't like seeing them setup that way in supplied files for spot color jobs, especially when they don't actually reveal what Pantone color is to be used. The exception to that is when generically named spot colors are used in 4-color jobs. It doesn't matter in those cases because all spot colors will be converted to process anyway.

 

[primalman]

Perhaps I wasn't clear. I know U and C are viewed as different colors, and yes I know that it matters how a color is named (that is, PMS 185 C vs. 185 U for example), and that there must be consistent naming of a spot color for correct seps in a spot color job. I have worked as a Prepress tech and graphic designer for many, many, many years and have corrected several such instances of the issues you're referring to.

What I'm saying is that if one of the colors used in a given spot color job is, for example, PMS 185, then it really doesn't matter whether the color is named "Pantone 185 C" or "Pantone 185 U" or "Hey this is a red spot color" or any one of countless other names, so long as the pressman knows that the actual Pantone color to print for that sep is Pantone 185. And in my case I choose to use "Pantone 185 C" as a name because I prefer that over "Pantone 185 U" as a name. That any spot color must be consistently named and applied through a given job for correct color seps was assumed in my previous post.

Now, don't take that to mean that I think it's okay to use generically named spot colors, because I don't. I merely stated it that way to make my point clear. I think it's sloppy to name spot colors that way. I don't use them that way and I don't like seeing them setup that way in supplied files for spot color jobs, especially when they don't actually reveal what Pantone color is to be used. The exception to that is when generically named spot colors are used in 4-color jobs. It doesn't matter in those cases because all spot colors will be converted to process anyway.

I'd say we are in agreement here.

I am just a stickler for consistency, and it is how I have taught all my junior designers, production artists and students over the years. Which is to say, at least in my mind, my shops and my classrooms, when picking spot colors, there is only one book, the C book, just to stay safe.

 

[macuser453787]

I'd say we are in agreement here.

I am just a stickler for consistency, and it is how I have taught all my junior designers, production artists and students over the years. Which is to say, at least in my mind, my shops and my classrooms, when picking spot colors, there is only one book, the C book, just to stay safe.

Dig it, I definitely agree. C is where it's at in my book (pun kinda intended).

 

[gillbrone]

Well for what it's worth guys I figured a workflow that got me where I wanted to be.

Similar to this thread topic I needed to effectively greyscale an image and then add a single pantone colour to specific areas. I needed to make this print ready so a printer would know where to throw in the pantone spot colour.

At first I tried the method of placing the artwork into illustrator and simply selecting the pantone swatch - this works but because there is no black channel the artwork looks washed out as illustrator scales the pantone colour.

Instead I did the following within photoshop

-Opened up the original image
-Change image mode to greyscale
-Change image mode to duotone (need to be in 8bit for this one) selecting a black channel and the pantone channel and adjusting the curves to suit
-Change the image mode to multichannel (this will flatten the image but allows you to see your two channels in the channel menu)
-You can then manually select areas of the artwork you want as just greyscale by using the marquee tool, magic wand, lasso, or creating alpha channels or what ever floats your boat - once your selection is made you can then click your pantone channel and delete the colour information from your selection
- Finally export the artwork as an EPS and place this into either illustrator or indesign, you will notice that your pantone and black channel are automatically bought in with it
- If you need transprency you can create a workpath in the photoshop EPS (you need to rename the workpath to something other than the stock 'work path' name). Then place the EPS in indesign and select object-->clipping path and select your photoshop path from the drop down. However I would not recommend using this transparency workflow because the clipping path created by photoshop is useless.

Hopefully this will help someone eh