advice on using spot colours

[peace flaps]

never really had to use them much (in photoshop at least) but remember piddling around years back to see how they fared.

the only problem i never sussed was which file type to use to save - the only option was DCS2.



if i recall, when i tried to use in quark..etc.., the results never seemed to be correct.



any tips?

[frailer]

Are you talking about saving out of Quack? Then making sure Device N is included, should cover your bases for including Spots in your [Composite] output, be it .ps or PDF. Might need some more info to nail what you're chasing, though.

[beermonster]

naa if you need a composite pdf out of quack that has a dcs2 in it - it wont work

there's a couple of workarounds tho

psd - saves spot colour info, and if you are lucky you can import it into quack

failing that, take the psd and place in illy - save as eps, and import into quack - this should retain spot colour info, but remember to click "retain spot colours" in the illy options when saving ok

of course, there's also placing that psd into indy and creating a pdf and placing that in quack (if it lets you - but not with transparency in) and going from there

dcs is almost a dead format really

hope this helps

[peace flaps]

so what do you guys save the photoshop spot colour jobs as? always as psd?



gonna try and do one of those illy workrounds next time i have a job to try it on - sounds like a reasonable solution

[The Stevinator]

psd is the easiest as most of us use adobe products and you can import native psd files in just about any adobe product now-a-days.

The best solution to your problem would be to just stop using quack.

[peace flaps]

so i keep getting told!

just don't like indy (probably after using quack for 10+ years, and am too much of an old dog for such a new trick)

[The Stevinator]

never too old to learn new tricks.

[Joe]

so what do you guys save the photoshop spot colour jobs as? always as psd?



gonna try and do one of those illy workrounds next time i have a job to try it on - sounds like a reasonable solution

Personally I'd save it as, depending on whether it is an image or bitmap, a B&W bitmap/grayscale tiff and then color it in Quark with your spot color.

If you just have to do it in Photoshop I'd save it as a Photoshop EPS for Quark and as a PSD or PDF for InDesign.

[The Stevinator]

yeah, especially with spot color images, whether it be monotone, duotone, tritone, etc.....

just save as a ps eps and be done with it.

[peace flaps]

^ i'm thinking more along the lines of "cmyk+spot colour channels"

eps never seemed to work, thats why i ended up using DCS2 (the only one available when i had spot colours on the file)



the fact that psd files are more supported these days will propbably make life a lot more simple next time i have to use any spot channels

[The Stevinator]

what kind of freak image are you trying to create?  a 5 color picture?  that would look like horsecrap.  keep in mind photoshop should be used for image editing only, not text or anything like that.

use illustrator if your trying to do custom text with wierd filters, etc.. applied to it.

[jezza]

what version of Quark are you trying ti get into/out of?

[Joe]

^ i'm thinking more along the lines of "cmyk+spot colour channels"

eps never seemed to work, thats why i ended up using DCS2 (the only one available when i had spot colours on the file)



the fact that psd files are more supported these days will propbably make life a lot more simple next time i have to use any spot channels

I'd save as a Tiff file for Quark then. You can retain the spots in a tiff file and Quark should see it just fine. I'd rather receive a thorough rectal exam than to place a PSD or PDF in Quark.

[LoganBlade]

Get indesign. or do what other are telling you.

Once you go Indesign you only go back when a designer got the program because that is all the teacher at the school knew how to use. Good luck.

[frailer]

so i keep getting told!

just don't like indy (probably after using quack for 10+ years, and am too much of an old dog for such a new trick)

Sorry, gonna be a bit confronting here, peace flaps. Most people who are still using Quack are doing so because they: a] have no choice. b] are change-resistant. You seem to fall into b] category. We can get you through it, mate. Really.

PSD will leave you more options, plus retain transparency to the final stage. EPS is becoming old hat, only to be used with Quack, pretty much. Print Engine RIPs are starting to get out there, and that means transparency will be interpreted by the RIP, not by PostScript beforehand. So, by clinging to the "old ways" you're gonna be short-changing yourself, pretty much...and pretty soon.

Have a look here:

http://rwillustrator.blogspot.com/2006/08/spot-colors-transparency-and.html

He's also got other topics in his archive there, which you can access. Relevant, in general, to what you are trying to address.