CMYK > 2 color
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- Soler
PS help please/// I have a layered fiel built in PS that is CMYK, but is basically white / black / blue. I want to break it up so it can print 2 color / black//blue.
How do I do this? multichannel mode?
- rockonski0
Duotone. and then you can specify the pantone colors etc.
- Soler0
Duotone doesn't quite do it though.. It mixes blue everywhere.. I just want it in teh certain spots where I designed. Any other ideas?
- MLP0
you might have to take out each layer and make it a monotone then repaste it into a duotone file with just the black and blue colors
- lyrek0
the best way I know to do it is to export the areas as 100% black, with alpha, as tifs and to import into quark or indesign. then drag the color on top of the layers.
- era4040
that's what i'd do too.
- Soler0
i'm gonna try- but pretty complex to do this, especially with photos- no easier way, huh?
- monNom0
there's curve adjustments in the Duotone dialogue that let you adjust the way the blue/black gets laid down.
from what i've been told, alpha channels and RIPs don't mix.
- minimalista0
Add a spot color channel. Any items psted on that channel will print in that PMS color. Save the file as a Photoshop DCS 2.0.
- p0wdah0
Leave it as a CMYK file. White out the M and Y channels and only work in the black and cyan channels. (Create all of the black bits in the BLACK channel and all the blue in the CYAN channel.) If you need to add copy to it in another program just place it in as a regular CMYK file and only use cyan and black to create the text. Then send it off to print as a CMYK file and tell the printer to only run the blue and black plates. You can even substitute colours this way like run the black as a pantone black and the blue as a pantone metallic blue. (fuck I hope that made sense)
- flaccus0
get used to think of the print process - then work directly on the channel. play a little around with it. it's not the hard to learn.
every channel you add can be configured as whatever color you want it to be - including stuff like silver where the transparence isn't 100% like with all others... you can save those multichannel bitmap-files for use in quark / indesign etc as DCS2.0 EPS -- yeah or as DCS2.0 PSD sure...
in short: qou get most control with directly simulating the print process with channel stuff. a thing of perspective.
do things manually and be the commander o)
- pyeaton0
The best way to do it is create a multichannel doc (under the image mode menu). Then create a spot chanell using the channel palette. You will need to spec out a PMS Blue, like say 300 or whatever you feel is best. Then, to save the file, you will need to save it as a photoshop DCS formatted file. Don;t worry, this basically makes this into an .eps. To check to make sure that the PMS is showing corrctly from a raster doc, import it into a new Quark or Indd doc and see if the pms pops into the color palette.
Let me know if this helps. The only other way to do it, is convert the blue to 100% Cyan, and then tell the printer what PMS you want to use instead of Cyan.
- stem0
Hahaha - you have leaned a valuable lesson today young Soler!
It's always a good idea to work out what the finished thing is (i.e. how it's printed/produced) before you waste any time doing any artwork. Getting quotes and print/paper samples is a good idea too.
This "mistake" is the product of an hyperactive computer monkey-junkie!
Step away from your screen every now and then.
- stevegee0
All correct answers, however there is an alternative that is less of a pain in the ass... open the PSD in Illustrator CS2 and use the live trace tool, you'll have to play with the settings, but you can get it to a really great quality 2 color breakdown with that. I just did it with a crappy low res 2 color piece that was flattened in Photoshop... opened in Illustrator CS2, played with settings, voila, vector 1600dpi 2-color as pure as anything.
- yourmumrang0
it would help if we could see the 'image'
- Soler0
thanks everyone- true I would have been better off knowing the process before-hand- however, I was told it was CMYK and then it changed later- that's why I was asking-
THANKS eeryone all th einput is very helpful. basically I have to just manually rebuild it with the new specs- thought there was a cheat but not really- THANKS