Opacity masks in PackEdge

Macmann

Well-known member
From time to time we get fairly complex artwork created in Illustrator that contains multiple opacity masks. We normalize and bring into PackEdge. Once in Esko the opacity masks retain CMYK data which is represented with an exclamation point in the color palette. The artwork is created with spot colors so the process inks are a red flag. If you turn those process colors off in the viewer palette nothing happens, but if you go to delete them from the ink palette the gradients change. Is there a way to remove those CMYK colors from the color palette without affecting the gradients? Aside from just ignoring them, knowing they will not generate a plate, is there a better way to handle them? Is there something we could do in Illustrator before normalizing?
 
Hi Macmann,

Deleting the process inks is not a good idea as Esko needs them to interprete the artwork correctly. I know it's a bit of a bore but I haven't found away yet to get rid of them. I guess, as long as those exclamation marks don't generate plates we're good.
Recently we did a test to convert a large neutral grey CMYK-image, that was used as an opacity mask, into a grayscale and even that had a (slight) effect on the outcome. The reason why we wanted to convert was that the image was clipped away for the largest part, the resolution was far too high and (we thought) only gray was needed in stead of CMYK. With this conversion we merely aimed for more efficient throughput on our RIP. After running tests for over two hours we had to stick with the original buildup.
Touching up the original artwork in Illie was no good idea either.
Another way for a workaround would be to RIP the one-up to a normalized PDF with the jobspecific RIPspecs and use this ripped PDF in your page lay-out. We ran in this so often we even built a workflow for this. It works well and saves us a lot of time. That's a trick we use quite often for artwork from guys who haven't got a clue of things that have to be done to get their 'pearls' to a press.

Luck

screenpixie
 

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