Proper SpotUV setup

[Tech]

Coloring items in black is the usual practice by most designers. Most don't take the extra step on setting their spot UV with an assign spot color. In some cases, coloring items in black is the easiest method for them depending on complexity (or poor file construction) of their design.

I like to know how many of you would absolutely kick this type of files back to designers and insist on proper spot UV setup just so you can get an easy separation? or would you take the extra mile and make the fix on your end?

Also correct me if I'm wrong, all spot uv gets separated and map to black anyway? If such spot UV layer is already setup as a separate layer...am I wrong to think printer just need to output that layer separately and rename it whatever they like?

 

[Gregg]

I'd be curious to hear some feedback from printers as well.

The way I work: my designers pass off their final jackets/covers to me, they inform me which elements are getting a spot-UV, foil, emboss/deboss etc. I then create those "plates". I assign them a spot-color of 100k, and label each color accordingly (i.e. Spot Gloss, Emboss).

If I am supplying InDesign files, all special effect plates are on their own layer (as bitmap.TIFs or Vector.AI). If I am supplying PDFs, I include all special effect plates on the same page as the 4-c jacket art (all special effect plates are set to overprint).

We do a lot of co-edition publishing, and I often get files from foreign publishers that have all of the special effect plates on separate pages of the layout file. That is how I use to do it in Quark 4, but it seems pointless nowadays.

Tech, not trying to hijack your post, just adding a bit.

 

[Tech]

Haha, Gregg... you are like my long lost twin... we seem to encounter the seem identical issues with our designers. You are right about old files... I still see those from time to time in our archive...all effects setup on different pages.

I too encouraged our designers to build layouts in layers. It just makes sense and downstream can toggle on and off what they need to output or correct. Unless of course, they prefer just hitting print and have all effects output correctly during separation...then I could see why they want to kick these files back and have spot colors assign...but again, how hard is it to toggle effect layers for output when it's just 100K? Would love to hear from someone downstream.


Thanks.

 

[appstro]

It depends on how complicated the file is. Most of the time we just correct the clients files and charge extra prepress time for it. If its very simple then we just output the UV as a seperate file/pdf. We print transparencies for our UV vendor so it works out. Ultimately we prefer all layers to be output as one file and RIP accordingly.

There was one instance where the designer demanded that his UV was correct and that he could do gradations and what not. We tried repeatedly to explain to him that he needed to create the UV as solid image area only. In this case we bounced the job back several times.