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magnetic_Delight16B8
magnetic_Delight16B8
Participating Frequently
November 8, 2017
Answered

Is anyone having issues with the PANTONE Plus Color Bridge Coated Process (CP) colors not overprinting in Illustrator?

  • November 8, 2017
  • 3 replies
  • 2734 views

I'm using Adobe CC 2018 Illustrator on an iMac. 

Screen Shot 2017-11-08 at 11.22.02 AM

Screenshot of the flag's blue field colored with PMS 287 C shows the overprint on the stripes like it should. 


Screen Shot 2017-11-08 at 11.18.20 AM

 

 

Screenshot of the flag's blue field colored with PMS 287 CP does not show the overprint. 

Screen Shot 2017-11-08 at 11.18.27 AM

 

This is a CMYK process job and I need to use the colors from the CP book.  When I RIP the file it does not overprint even though the element is set to overprint.  Overprint preview is ON as well as the element is checked to overprint.  What am I missing?  Has anyone experienced this before and is there a fix?  Please help.

Thanks in advance,

Rob Baker

    This topic has been closed for replies.
    Correct answer Ton Frederiks

    Ton,

    You are probably beating your head against the wall trying to explain this to me.  Thank you for trying.

    I still don't understand why the stacking order of two OVERPRINTED CMYK colors would make the example on the left not represent the overprint status correctly and the example on the right works perfectly.  The first one is NOT showing the overprint, it is knocking out the red underneath.  If you save this as a PDF and read the overlapped area with the output preview tool in Acrobat you'll see the values are the same as the blue only.  That, to me, is NOT an overprint.  Whereas the one on the right, to me, shows the overprint the way it should.  The stacking order should not matter because BOTH colors are set to overprint.  I really need to wrap my head around this so I can either submit a bug fix request, or change the way I've done prepress for all these years.  Please help.


    It is difficult to explain, I agree.

    Download this file and play with the Separations Preview in Illustrator, turn on and off some of the inks to see what happens.

    Adobe Creative Cloud

    3 replies

    magnetic_Delight16B8
    magnetic_Delight16B8Author
    Participating Frequently
    November 9, 2017

    Ton,

    For some reason when I replied to your comment via email it didn't post the .ai file I attached.  I'm new at this blog and I don't know how to get this ai file to you.  Here is a png of what I was describing in my reply.

    Ton Frederiks
    Community Expert
    Ton FrederiksCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    November 9, 2017

    It is the same in every version of Illustrator:

    OldBob1957
    OldBob1957
    Inspiring
    November 9, 2017

    Ton, unless I am greatly mistaking what was asked, your screen does not represent what I am seeing in my ancient 17.x version of Illustrator.

    Using the same CP colors given in your demo (I didn't label them) and with the top color set to overprint, the Overprint Preview shows what I would expect (after 40+ years of screen printing and printing):

    I have not yet not had a chance to try it on our more modern machines with the newer versions of Illustrator. But I will as I get the time.

    Edit to add: I get the same results as I show above in my 19.x version as well.

    --OB

    Ton Frederiks
    Community Expert
    Ton FrederiksCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    November 9, 2017

    Use Multiply instead of Overprint.

    If the underlying object contains a percentage of one of the inks of the top object that is set to Overprint, it cannot not Overprint.

    magnetic_Delight16B8
    magnetic_Delight16B8Author
    Participating Frequently
    November 9, 2017

    Ton,

    Thanks for the reply.

    I am familiar with the Multiply effect, however, this does not solve my problem. It is a work-around. I do a lot of manual trapping in my workflow and this was not an issue until I upgraded to CC2018 (22.0.1).

    Here is an example of a different “CP” color with normal fill at 100% opacity and overprint applied. This one works but the others don’t? It seems possible that the coding for these color swatches is awry.

    Ton Frederiks
    Community Expert
    Ton FrederiksCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    November 9, 2017

    It has always been like that.

    I don't see your example.

    Can you give the CMYK percentages of the overprint color and the underlying color?

    Lilybiri
    Lilybiri
    Legend
    November 9, 2017

    You posted this question in the wrong forum, this is the Captivate forum.


    I will move it to the Illustrator forum.

    magnetic_Delight16B8
    magnetic_Delight16B8Author
    Participating Frequently
    November 9, 2017

    Lilybiri,

    Thank you very much for placing me in the correct forum!

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