Counting Colors in Illustrator 9
Chris Lawless
the number of colors used in an Illustrator document? I'm trying to confirm
a blended image is appropriate for a 4 color printing requirement.
Thanks in advance,
Chris.
LauraK
>the number of colors used in an Illustrator document? I'm trying to confirm
>a blended image is appropriate for a 4 color printing requirement.
If it's in CMYK, as it should be for 4-color printing, it will only use those
four inks, no matter how many "colors" it may have unless you've added a spot
color as a spot color.
Go to the Swatch palette and click on the options arrow on the right top.
Click on "select all unused" on the menu. Delete those. You'll be left with
colors actually used in the graphic.
They should all be CMYK. Click on each swatch to check. It should give you the
Color palette with the CMYK percentages.
Spot colors in a Swatch palette usually have a little tiny dot on the lower
right corner. Those will need to be converted to CMYK.
If the blends use transparencies, that could cause problems with some printers,
it all depends. Check with the printer.
lau...@madmousergraphics.com
http://www.madmousergraphics.com
web design, print design, photography
Chris
safe?
"LauraK" <lk...@aol.comnospam> wrote in message
news:20030723124021...@mb-m10.aol.com...
LauraK
>safe?
That depends on what you mean by "go." Do you mean they all stay and the
graphic is ready to "go?"
As long as you don't have any spot colors, everything will print using a blend
of the four inks.
Click on each of the swatches and in the Color palette you'll either see the
color with a little CMYK square under it on the right or you'll see the
percentage breakdown of CMYK.
Each of the inks -- Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Black -- is on a different plate
and requires a separate pass through the press -- generally speaking.
As long as colors can be broken down into CMYK inks, it can be printed on one
of those passes. Different colors are created by the number of dots each plate
puts down in an area.
If you have spot colors in addition to the CMYK, that would require a separate
plate and a separate pass through the press and costs more.
Also check that the black being used is 100% K. It usually is in Illustrator.
Chris
you directed - this deleted all of them. I am assuming this then means I
have no spot colors and as such everything will be made up of CMYK.
I'm waiting for confirmation from my printers as I don't fully understand
the difference between two and four color printing. I would say my document
only has two colors (black and orange) but if that Orange has to be made up
from a CMYK combination then it may be a blend of four colors.
We shall see! Thanks for all of your help.
Chris.
"LauraK" <lk...@aol.comnospam> wrote in message
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LauraK
>you directed - this deleted all of them. I am assuming this then means I
>have no spot colors and as such everything will be made up of CMYK.
You've got problems if deleting unused swatches deleted "all" the color
swatches in the swatch pallette.
It usually means that you used RGB colors that needed to be changed to CMYK.
If the graphic is supposed to only use two colors (black and orange) it may be
meant as a 2-color job, which is cheaper than 4-color (only needs two plates,
two passes) and you need to use a PMS (spot) color for the orange. The PMS
color is usually specified by the client.
You really need to get the information from the printer and ask him to explain
what he needs from you.
Alexgirl
of work, but I understand it is used in brochures, catalogs, flyers and even
business cards now. Generally for much more colour intensive jobs. It's a
one pass slower process.
2 colour printing means printing a job using only 2 pantone colours, but you
could do as many pantone colours as you want depending on how much you want
to spend and what equipment the printer has. The paper is subjected to each
ink colour separately and is much more high-speed. I have done 5 colour
jobs, but that was a long time ago and generally something like that is now
done with 4 colour printing process instead unless a company demands
otherwise. I use pantone colours for printing up cheques, invoices,
envelopes and the like -- from 250 to 100,000 + copies. If you are doing a
black and orange job, depending what it is, you may want that to be done in
pantone colours instead.
"Chris" <ukc...@hotmail.com> wrote in message
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Dee
Yikes! I'm also trying to understand all this 'CMYK' and Spot color ..
pantones .. etc. .. talk. It can be confusing!
But I truly want to 'understand' it .... even if I never 'do' the printing
... and because if I work with the files ... I need to know what's what.
Could you explain a few things? I understand CMYK to be
(Cyan)(Magneta)(Yellow) ... but is K (Black)? And how does one actually
'convert' a pantone color to CMYK for the printer?
Is 'spot' color the same as pantone, or are they 2 different things? Also,
with 4 color printing as opposed to 2 color printing .... I'm a little
confused .. could you explain that a bit more?
Sorry about all the questions, but you don't learn unless you ask. :-)
Thanks!
Dee
LauraK
>(Cyan)(Magneta)(Yellow) ... but is K (Black)? And how does one actually
>'convert' a pantone color to CMYK for the printer?
>
K is black so it doesn't get confused with blue.
You don't "convert" a Pantone to CMYK unless you're using the CMYK process.
Pantone is a brand name for inks that come in 24 colors. A PMS color sets a
specific formula for how those inks are mixed to create that color. If you
specific a PMS color, the color should be the same no matter where it's
printed. There are other similar ink systems. Any of them can be used as spot
colors.
Look at the color swatches in Illustrator. If you specifiy a number in
Focoltone, the printer will use the Focoltone ink to create it.The same with
the other brands.
Pantone is the best known and has the most readily available color fans.
Because of this, in Illustrator, you get, in addition to the straight Pantone
colors, a Pantone Process set of swatches. These are close approximations of
some Pantone colors in CMYK inks. CMYK colors are also called Process colors.
Spot colors are often used for exact color matching.
CMYK has a limited "gamut" of colors. It can only create so many colors, don't
remember how many but it's limited.
Never trust what you seeon the computer to be the exact shade that's printed.
The computer shows RGB colors. Also work from printed color swatches and a
match print from the printer.
>Is 'spot' color the same as pantone, or are they 2 different things? Also,
>with 4 color printing as opposed to 2 color printing .... I'm a little
>confused .. could you explain that a bit more?
You need to understand how the color is put on the paper. A commercial press is
nothing like an inkjet where you put the paper in and when it comes out the
whole thing is printed in all the colors.
CMYK colors are "created" by making a plate for each color. Each plate puts
dots on the sheet as it passes through the press. How big and frequent the dots
are for each color determines how what color the eye sees.
For 4-color printing, the paper makes 4 passes through the press, one each for
C, M, Y and K. Each pass puts that color's dots on the paper.
For 2-color printing with a spot color, the paper makes only two passes. With a
spot color, the ink is mixed to the exact color and that color is put down as
dots, rather than having the colors created from lots of different dots.
The easiest way to get a handle on all of this is to go to the printer and ask
him to show you how it's done. If you can see the plates going on the press and
how the design you do gets translated to negatives and then plates, you'll get
a better feel for what's going on.
Most printers are happy to help you since it means less work for them if they
get good input.