Need Help Converting 4c Pattern to a 2-3c Pattern

firecoral417

New member
Having a bit of a dilemma here...

We have a client that prints their packaging with this burlap looking background (see attached) using process. They've been disappointed with the color inconsistency. So, naturally, my bosses recommended they print in spots. A couple of people have tried a few different things and have come up with results quickly rejected by the client. They've now given me the job to try and resolve. The only thing I know they've done is mess around with the curves and channels. What they're ideally trying to do is mimic the beige-ish color with a spot then reproduce the pattern using a black plate and, well, it looks very 2-color. I'm thinking we may need to throw in a yellow plate too or maybe use a more yellow-ish/beige spot and use K and M plates. I'm just wondering, before I spend a lot of time fooling around with this, what you all may think of the mess.

Do you think it's possible to print this 3-color (1 spot, 2 process) or preferrably 2-color and get it to look like the full color version? In the pattern alone I see a lot of YK, some M and a little C. Anyhow, I've never had to convert anything such as this to spot before and I'm hoping someone here may have some insight as to the best way possible to go about doing so.

Thanks in advance
 
Re: Need Help Converting 4c Pattern to a 2-3c Pattern

You may want to take a look at EskoArtwork's Ink Tools for Photoshop. This is part of our DeskPack plugins for Photoshop. The InkSwitch tool could be what you are looking for. http://www.esko.com/web/site.aspx?p=396 The online presentation at the right-hand side of the webpage may help. You may contact EskoArtwork directly through the website for more info. Good luck. - peter
 
Re: Need Help Converting 4c Pattern to a 2-3c Pattern

whether you have the fancy ($$$) esko plug-in or not, the only way to re-produce to spot colors is to fiddle around with layers/curves ect. you could easy match that out of 3 colors. eg a beige, a brown and a dark brown. it would have to be 3 color to get the depth you want. the problem would be proofing it to your customers satisfaction. then matching on press would be easy.
 
Re: Need Help Converting 4c Pattern to a 2-3c Pattern

If you convert to CMYK with maximum black generation, you should end up with virtually no cyan. As long as you are using three inks (and it looks like that's the minimum), press consistency will probably not be much different with different ink colors, and the opacity of spot inks makes it very difficult to accurately predict the result until you actually put the ink on paper. The advantage of using magenta, yellow and black is that your proofs should match as well as they do with normal process color jobs.
 
Re: Need Help Converting 4c Pattern to a 2-3c Pattern

To be honest, I sort of looked on the thread out of curiosity, and unfortunately I (like many other prepress workers) have a propensity to mull over technical and theoretical issues to a compulsive degree-I think that it's a legitimate personality quirk that puts many of us in this end of the shop to start with.
Anyway-I agree with the conversion and then a CMY build to create the 3c image, but then I got to exploring some. I tried it 2 ways-once as a 3c (CMY) with taking the tiny amount of dot in the K sep and merging that (transparently) into the standing C channel. Looked good, sufficient density to fill out and everything, but then I got to pondering more, and built a tri-tone (all of you "old school" prep guys and gals know what I mean). The tri-tone actually can look warmer or cooler, depending on your choices of a Pantone blue, red or yellow (300, 185, and 109 looked good to me), and it allows the designer to get a little subtler look for type and other elements. Well, I realize that probably this is only important to me but like everything else in prepress, it made me work through an issue that someday I am sure to run across myself. Good luck
 
Converting 4c Pattern to a 2-3c Pattern

Converting 4c Pattern to a 2-3c Pattern

I would take a dive into illustrators Live colour. (if you have a photo use live trace first)
You can remap colurs to stay within certain Pantone colours, ofc may need some manual tweaking but it has great benifits.
If you're really into colour for packaging also check out PhantasmCS plugg for illy.
 
Re: Converting 4c Pattern to a 2-3c Pattern

Re: Converting 4c Pattern to a 2-3c Pattern

> {quote:title=Lukas Engqvit wrote:}{quote}
> I would take a dive into illustrators Live colour. (if you have a photo use live trace first)
> You can remap colurs to stay within certain Pantone colours, ofc may need some manual tweaking but it has great benifits.
> If you're really into colour for packaging also check out PhantasmCS plugg for illy.

Hi Lukas,

Thanks for the mention. I did this sort of work recently (with even more colour detail to replicate), converting an image from CMYK to 3 spots + 3 process for a much greater colour gamut. I did this by swapping channels, etc. in Illustrator with [our plugin|http://www.phantasmcs.com/]. But as this example is merely an image file, if can equally be done with Photoshop's native tools.

Unless you vector trace the image (not advised), Live Color will be useless for this example as it doesn't cater for bitmaps - only vector objects.

Proofing is the main hurdle, but with a well calibrated monitor, Photoshop and Illustrator both do a reasonable job of on-screen representation. Obviously nothing will match a wet proof ($$$!).

Best wishes,

Nick
 

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