How do I create tints of a PMS color in Illustrator CS3?

[ariecht]

Hello,

I have an Illustrator file in CMYK mode. I'm limited to 2 colors for printing on this project, so I want to use black and a spot color PMS 5565.

I'd like to be able to create shades (tint) of the PMS color to get some variation, but don't see any tint sliders.

If I double-click on the PMS color in the swatches pallete, the swatch options are:

Color type: which is set to "spot color"

Global is checked

Color mode is CMYK.

I just thought of another question. If black is my other color, I'd like to be able to use tints of black to get grays. So when I double click on black in the swatch pallete, a CMYK version of black comes up. So do I need to choose a spot "Black" as well? Or do I change the document color mode to Grayscale? Wait, I just checked. There is no grayscale mode in Illustrator.

Any help would be appreciated.

Ari

[Larry G. Schneider · Accepted solution]

Do you have the Color panel open as well as the Swatch panel? When you choose a PMS color in the Swatch panel, in the Color panel there will be a slider available to change the tint of the PMS.

[ariecht]

Thank you Larry. You are right. And I also see that I get a non-CMYK black

tint slider as well.

Do you know if I were to import this Illustrator file into an InDesign

document, and used the same 2 colors in my InDesign document, would I be

okay for 2-color printing?

Thanks again for your time and expertise.

Ari

[Larry G. Schneider]

Yes, it should work out all right,

[Scott Falkner]

If you import the file, any spot colours used in the Illustrator file will show up in the Swatches panel in InDesign.

[ariecht]

Larry,

You helped me a couple a weeks ago with a color management question in

Illustrator. I have another question I'm hoping you could help me with.

I have a 2-color print job. I'm using a PMS green and black. Currently, the

black is showing as a CMYK black, but the cyan, magenta, and yellow are 0%.

Is that okay for printing a 2-color job, or do I need to select a PMS black?

Thanks in advance.

Ari Echt

[Larry G. Schneider]

If all black is showing only on the K plate, then it should be alright. Just tell the printer not to run the CM&Y plates. You can verify this in Acrobat in the Seperations preview.

[Wade_Zimmerman1]

You Lary's pos as the answer and his other answer along with Scott's as helpful as well, this comes up often and I think

having this thread marked would help other uses.