Photoshop Spot Color

[lynnz]

Hi All,
I know you pros out there can help me. I have a 4/color ct. Thank goodness the photoshop file is layered so I can change just the background 4/c brown to a spot 476 brown. Question is... How exactly do I do this. I know it's not that hard, just have never done it. Can anyone please walk me through this??????
Thanks so much in advance
lynn

 

[mschilling]

I would stay with 4C in the image and just make the bg transparent, with the spot brown in your page layout. (see my other post)

 

[Thierry]

If you really need to do it, it's not that hard but it's mainly used for packaging purposes (who else has enough money to print with 5 or 6 colors) or to apply varnish on some areas of a picture.

Go to the Channel palettes and choose Add new spot color channel in the local menu of the palette. This will show you a dialog box where you can select a spot color (click on the Color libraries button if needed) and then choose PMS 476. The Pantone is applied as a channel and not on a layer, so be aware that there is no automatic knockout and that you will have to create it by yourself (probably by making a selection out of your other layers and erasing the content of this selection on the spot color channel). Your original layer with de CMYK brown has to be removed. If you want to avoid misregistration problems, you also have to create trapping.

Your final file must be saved in EPS DCS 2 and sometimes this can be a problem (doesn't work correctly with XPress 7). When done, always print separations on a laser printer or in a PDF to check the plates.

I hope this will help you. Sorry if some terms are wrong but I don't have an english version of Photoshop.

 

[lynnz]

Thanks Thierry, I did finally figure it out and all is good - it was actually a much easier fix than I realized. I just turned off the background layer that I needed to change and saved the ct that way - then in illustrator I created the spot color background and sent it behind. Worked great. You're right I work for a packaging company and you should see the challenges I face everyday - OH JOY
Thanks again.
lynn

 

[Thierry]

Glad to see that it's oK for you. You can also use the process explained in my previous post to copy content from a normal channel into a spot color channel in order to create more vivid colors (to get a better red for strawberries on a packaging, for instance). It's a little bit tricky as Photoshop is not really able to simulate the result of the mixing of inks but sometimes it's useful.

 

[lynnz]

Thanks Thierry, I'll keep all this in mind for next project - and there WILL be more.

 

[rich apollo]

Thierry,
Quick point - you don't have to save a Photoshop file with spot colors as a DCS file anymore. TIFF, PSD, and PDF all support the use of spot colors; and may be easier to work with.