Opacity Mask in Artpro/Nexus

[MMC]

How do you handle Opacity Masks in Artpro/Nexus when you need to delete Black channel and it is used as Opacity mask? I found that I can flatten transparencies but I would like to avoid doing that, anyone have a work around for it?

 

[WI-Flexo]

What we do is sort the black to the last separation in the list. This puts the black at the end of the tagline. Then we rip the job as normal and just trash the black separation. Hope that helps.

 

[MMC]

when do you put black at end of list? the only time I can see doing that is in Artpro/Nexus after file is ripped.

 

[WI-Flexo]

Yes, put it to the end of the list in Artpro, on the 1-up AP file, before stepping. Then just treat the file like there was no black. Then when the file is stepped and ripped you will get an empty black sep. Then just delete it.

 

[MMC]

ah, like I expected, but, we don't do the step thing here, we need to make a hi-res PDF file for end user with only used channels in it (idiot proof) customer can't get past the idea that you just don't have to plate/print the black channel if it is not used..... I am looking for a way to re-map or take the opacity mask out of black. We have swapped and renamed black to channel being used but that sometimes causes problems too.

 

[WI-Flexo]

I understand now but do not have a solution for completely eliminating black from the file. We also have tried many different work arounds without success. Probably a support question. Best of luck!

 

[MMC]

Thanx WI-Flexo, anyone else got a suggestion?

 

[PetePress]

From the export PDF menu you can exclude separations which are not in use.

Go to the PDF export menu - color - enable exclude separations - open the options & make sure the Search unused separations is on... You'll notice that the opacity black sep will disable itself...

Hope this helps.... Good luck!

 

[MMC]

From the export PDF menu you can exclude separations which are not in use.

Go to the PDF export menu - color - enable exclude separations - open the options & make sure the Search unused separations is on... You'll notice that the opacity black sep will disable itself...

Hope this helps.... Good luck!

Thanx, we do that often for final PDF, I forgot to mention earlier that we need to delete all unused channels, not only from final PDF but from Artpro file also. So, does anyone have a way to delete black channel that is used in opacity mask without flattening the trans?

 

[PetePress]

There is no other way... The Black channel is in use for the opacity mask. Delete your black and you loose the opacity mask. No workaround here... Had the same problem once. I just send out a PDF (as described previously) and leave the K sep in the ArtPro doc...

Or... Swap the opacity mask object from black to another existing sep in your doc. Cyan for instance...But this might have it's influence on the opacity mask itself.

 

[Kristian]

If the black is only used for an opacity mask we rename the colour as 'MASK'. We then set our Nexus workflow to ignore the mask separation.

Renaming the colour does not effect the mask, it's only if you delete the colour it causes problems.

 

[MMC]

Thanks all, what about a way to NOT let it create opacity mask from the start? anyone?