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kefir-yum
Participant
February 7, 2017
Question

Control over cmyk values in cmyk document

  • February 7, 2017
  • 2 replies
  • 582 views

Okay, I've been doing this for years, and my printer (real person who handles printing in cymk) has liked the files I send him.

So, since I've been using illustrator, newest version, (not going to look for version right now), on a new iMac,

I have seen that I cannot get the application to leave my cmyk ink settings to what I want them to be.

For instance: I want my GTIN (upc) symbol to be 100% black ink only, or k.

There doesn't seem to be any method to select this in the colour pallet, it keeps

reverting it to using all four inks, cmyk (cyan, magenta, yellow, black) in various

percentages.

There are times when I want to print 100% cyan and 100% black and I can't get illustrator

to leave that selected, so I've lost control of selecting printing inks and percentages?

Is this true?

.

    This topic has been closed for replies.

    2 replies

    barbara_a7746676
    Community Expert
    barbara_a7746676Community Expert
    Community Expert
    February 7, 2017

    If you created a new document using the Print profile, you should be getting 100% black. If the document was created using a different preset or different settings, you can choose File > Document Color Mode, and select CMYK.

    Some things to check:

    Edit > Color Settings, CMYK should be set to Preserve Numbers (Ignore Linked Profiles)

    If you are giving your printer a PDF, om the Save Adobe PDF dialog box, Output should be Color Conversion: No Conversion.

    In Preferences > Appearance of Black, Printing/Exporting: Output All Blacks Accurately should be selected.

    If these suggestions don't solve the problem, please let me know the steps you are doing when an object you specify as 100% K gets converted to rich black.

    K
    kefir-yumAuthor
    Participant
    February 7, 2017

    Yes, thanks.

    If I stay in the color pallet to the right, the one with the sliders and the choices of rgb or cymk etc. then

    there's no confusion.

    If I try to check colours using the large color box picker to the left in the tool box, that's when things seem to change, somehow.

    So, I'm guessing there's two color systems working in illustrator, and I should ignore the one in the tool selection panel and just use the one in the color pallet panel to the right of the window.

    .

    Monika Gause
    Community Expert
    Monika GauseCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    February 7, 2017

    kefir-yum schrieb:

    So, I'm guessing there's two color systems working in illustrator,

    No, there's not.

    But you need to describe step by step what exactly you are doing in which dialog box, what Illustrator does then and what you have expected to happen. With your short statements this can't be solved.

    Illustrator can only set up colors in the document color mode. If you enter values in some other mode the colors will be converted into the document color mode immediately.

    K
    kefir-yumAuthor
    Participant
    February 7, 2017

    Okay. . . so I was checking around the colour pallet and must have double clicked something and a slider colour control panel appeared under the three little no-color, black color, white color, boxes.

    So I made the black with only the black cmyk slider and left the other three at 0.

    After doing this, i checked the element I made 100% k (black) and it reverted back to the cymk percentages in the big color box to the left in the tools pallet.

    so still no real control happening. . .

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