Printing spot colors, About spot colors, Create a new spot channel – Adobe Photoshop CS4 User Manual
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USING PHOTOSHOP CS4
Printing
Last updated 1/10/2010
Printing spot colors
About spot colors
Spot colors are special premixed inks used instead of, or in addition to, the process color (CMYK) inks. Each spot color
requires its own plate on the press. (Because a varnish requires a separate plate, it is considered a spot color, too.)
If you are planning to print an image with spot colors, you need to create spot channels to store the colors. To export
spot channels, save the file in DCS 2.0 format or PDF.
Note the following when working with spot colors:
•
For spot color graphics that have crisp edges and knock out the underlying image, consider creating the additional
artwork in a page layout or illustration application.
•
To apply spot color as a tint throughout an image, convert the image to Duotone mode and apply the spot color to
one of the duotone plates. You can use up to four spot colors, one per plate.
•
The names of the spot colors are printed on the separations.
•
Spot colors are overprinted on top of the fully composited image. Each spot color is printed in the order it appears
in the Channels panel, with the topmost channel printing as the topmost spot color.
•
You cannot move spot colors above a default channel in the Channels panel except in Multichannel mode.
•
Spot colors cannot be applied to individual layers.
•
Printing an image with a spot color channel to a composite color printer will print the spot color at an opacity
indicated by the Solidity setting.
•
You can merge spot channels with color channels, splitting the spot color into its color channel components.
More Help topics
Print separations from Photoshop
Create a new spot channel
You can create a new spot channel or convert an existing alpha channel to a spot channel.
1
Choose Window
> Channels to display the Channels panel.
2
To fill a selected area with a spot color, make or load a selection.
3
Do one of the following to create a channel:
•
Ctrl-click (Windows) or Command-click (Mac
OS) the New Channel button
in the Channels panel.
•
Choose New Spot Channel from the Channels panel menu.
If you made a selection, that area is filled with the currently specified spot color.
4
In the New Spot Channel dialog box, click the Color box. Then in the Color Picker, click Color Libraries to choose
from a custom color system such as PANTONE or TOYO and choose a color. See “
If you select a custom color, your print service provider can more easily provide the proper ink to reproduce the image.