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Spot Color Q&A

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How do I choose a spot color?

We generally use the PANTONE system for specifying and mixing colored inks. PANTONE sells swatch books showing their identified colors. If you don't have your own copy, you're welcome to come in and look at one of ours. It's not a good idea to rely on the appearance of a PANTONE color on your monitor to make a final decision of what color to use.

Note that PANTONE Process and PANTONE Hexachrome libraries do not contain spot colors. For identifying process colors, we recommend the TRUMATCH system.

How do I create spot colors in my document?

If you're placing EPS graphics (including DCS images) into a layout, the color names used in the graphic will be added to your color list when you place the graphic. If you can do this early on, it can help ensure that your color names are consistent.

  • QuarkXPress: Edit/Define Colors... Click New. Under model, select an appropriate PANTONE library. Select the color you wish to use.
  • Adobe PageMaker: Utilities/Define Colors... From the "Libraries" popup menu, select an appropriate PANTONE library. Select the color you wish to use.
  • Macromedia FreeHand: In the Colors inspector palette, select an appropriate PANTONE library from the Options popup menu. Select the color you wish to use.
  • Adobe Illustrator: Version 7 — Window/Swatch Libraries... lets you open an appropriate PANTONE library. Drag the desired color(s) into your document's swatch palette.
    Version 6 — File/Import styles... and select the appropriate PANTONE library document from the Utilities/Color Systems folder.
    Or open the file; colors from any open document are available in all open documents.
    • Tip: Before you save your file, Select All Unused swatches and delete them. This will help reduce the number of unneeded spot colors that show up in your layout.
  • Photoshop has a few different ways of handling spot colors
    • Image/Mode/Bitmap or Image/Mode/Grayscale: You can assign colors to grayscale and bitmap TIFFs in QuarkXPress, PageMaker, or FreeHand. Simply save as TIFF. Only the first channel will be used.
    • Image/Mode/Duotone: From the Duotone dialog box, click a color swatch to show the color picker; click the "Custom" button to show the list of PANTONE color names. Remember to use "Black" not "PANTONE Process Black CV".
    • Image/Mode/Multichannel: (new feature in version 5) Each channel's name is its spot color. In the Channel Options dialog, click the color swatch to show the color picker; click the "Custom" button to show the list of PANTONE color names.

How can I ensure that spot colors from different applications separate together?

The only thing that matters when creating color separations is the name of the color. "PANTONE 241 CV" and "PANTONE 241 CVC" are two different colors. Capitalization is important, too... "Pantone 241 CV" would be a third color.

Note that the different applications use different versions of the PANTONE color names, depending on which PANTONE libraries they know. If your programs don't agree, you'll have to change the color names yourself so that they match.

Be particularly careful about black in Photoshop duotones and spot color channels... don't select "PANTONE Process Black CV" from the custom color list unless you later change the name to simply "Black". Both PageMaker and QuarkXPress have "Black" as a permanent color and will treat "PANTONE Process Black CV" as a separate spot color.

Also, it really doesn't matter what the name is. You're welcome to create your graphics with descriptive names like "Peach" or "Purple" just so long as you're consistent.

Tip: There's a magazine that uses a different highlight color each issue. Rather than always have to edit their logo graphics, etc., they have consistently named the spot color "Color". When they get to press, we simply separate "Black" and "Color" and mix whichever ink they've requested this time.

I changed my mind and want to substitute PANTONE XXX for PANTONE YYY. Do I have to edit all my graphics and my file?

Probably not, unless you need a composite color proof (inkjet, color laser, dye sublimation) to reflect the change. We can simply separate the colors according to the old names but use whichever inks you specify on press.

What if my job uses just one color (no black ink)?

In this case, you might find it easier to simply set everything up as black. Of course, if you make a composite color print, you won't see the correct final color.

What about spot varnish?

Varnish is just another spot color with one important difference: it's transparent. Unfortunately, none of the design programs seem to know how to incorporate a transparent ink easily. Here are some tips:

  • Always set a varnish to overprint both strokes and fills, never knock out
  • Make the varnish's "color" (the RGB or CMYK definition) something really vivid that you aren't using elsewhere in the document. This makes it stand out on screen. You can always change it to something more subtle if you need a composite color proof.
  • If your software supports layers, you may find it convenient to place all varnish elements together on an upper layer.

Do I need to print separations?

Yes, most definitely. Printing with spot color is actually a little more difficult than printing with process color because the software is so picky about color names. Check to make certain that each element appears on the correct separations and that you have only one separation printing for each ink.

Tip: Print out all of your plates, including CMYK, just to make sure there aren't any graphics that were accidentally defined with process colors instead of spot colors.