Need to seperate two colours for the printers, how?

BreadBoard

I have designed an A5 leaflet that I'm now going to get printed. I done it in Adobe Photoshop, but the printers said they can't separate the 2 colours in the image in this format. He said if I had Illustrator or Quark I can do this.

Any ideas how I can sort this out?

heggie

files for print should not be done (at least presented) in photoshop format. If its purely an image you could make it duotone, but seeing as there's text etc, you really need to use a vector program, such as illustrator as anything in photoshop will end up bitmapped.

Re-do it in the correct program, and from the start, make sure you use spot colour pantone swatches, so for example:

your text is black, make sure everything thats meant to be black is set to pantone black coated/uncoated whatever (just make sure its the same)

do the same for the other colour and that will seperate fine.

BreadBoard

Thanks heggie. I've got a trial version of Adobe Illustrator CS2 can I use that program?

I've been trying to do out some text, but it's black and I don't know how to change the colour to reflex blue for example. I'll keep at it.

Cheers

heggie

illustrator will do the job for now, quark or indesign are more to do with composition, but you'll get away with illustrator.

to get the swatches panel up, goto Window - Swatches, and just apply them as you would a normal colour.

Technically it doesnt matter what pantone you assign to what (as long as you only have 2) but to avoid confusion set it to the colour you require.

Have the printers talked to you about bleeds and cut marks? theres a fair bit involved in understanding print ready files, but basically, if you have a solid/image that 'runs off the page' it will need a 3mm bleed, which is a continuation of the artwork outside the document's finished size, with cut or crop marks indicating where to cut. If you want to avoid this, leave a white border around the leaflet

edit: just make sure they are spot and not process swatches

BreadBoard

Ok sorted. I just done two separate files, Black & Reflex Blue and there's loads of room around the edge.

Thanks heggie, I appreciate the help.

BreadBoard

I'm only getting around to getting these printed now, I left in the files on a CD with the printer on Friday. They rang me today saying the fonts don't show up for them cause I done it on a PC and not a Mac. They told me that I'd need to close all or something when saving the file.

I don't see what setting they mean

I'm using a trial of Adobe Illustrator CS2, does anyone know what the printers mean ?

heggie

save as a pdf and embed the fonts or failing that outline them, there is no issue between pc's and mac's so thats inaccurate.

BreadBoard

That's what he said "outline them", you just reminded me... I went to View then Outline... That right?

heggie

no, select all the type,

and go Type -> create outlines

Paddy@CIRL

Heggie,

Is there any chance you could post a small tutorial for guys like Breadboard and myself also who are only starting out in the big bad world of dealing with printers ?

heggie

hi, i'll give it a go, if ya have any questions let me know and i can maybe make up a list or something, its hard to think of things outright

Paddy@CIRL

I'm sending the printers an InDesign/Quark file, what do I need to send ?

How do I deal with fonts ?

How will I send it to them ?

What are the big no no's ?

looksee

Heggie - one of the few issues between pc and mac is fonts - sometimes you will get away with it, sometimes there is a slight difference between a pc and a mac version of a font, and sometimes the names are completely different, or there isn't an equivalent. Even when it looks ok sometimes there is a subtle difference which will mess up in Quark text boxes.

heggie

its nothing to do with pc or mac, sometimes they can be different on the same system, thats why you should use the fonts that have been bundled with the job,

so, for indesign - package it all up and quark - collect for output

and if fonts are embedded we're talking about pdf's or eps, it will use the embedded fonts and not the systems