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Hi,
This might be a silly question but I am really stumped! I have an illustrator file that is three objects with different outer glows layered over each other, each outer glow is the same pantone spot colour. When I place the file in Indesign and export a PDF the outer glow exports as CMYK. The issue is with Illustrator because when I save the Illustrator file as a PDF it also exports as CMYK. I've selected 'no conversion' as the output in both Illustrator and Indesign but the outer glow effect is not retaining the spot colour. I can't for the life of me figure this out and I need to print a 2c poster so I need to figure out how to get the outer glow to export or save as 361C. Is it not possible to create an outer glow with a spot colour? What am I doing wrong!? (production is not my forte). See below screenshots of the file and the outer glow settings. Thanks in advance for any advice!
I checked your Effect > Document Raster Effects Settings...
The Preserve spot colors checkbox was turned off.
Since you use a raster effect, it needs to be turned on.
That seems to work for me.
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Outer glow with spots should be possible.
If you check the Separations Preview panel in Illustrator, does it separate correctly?
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I have no idea why, but the separations preview panel is blank and Overprint preview is greyed out
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Ah, sorry I just realised my doc was in RGB mode, switched it to CMYK and even though the outer glow is set to the spot colour (as you can see in the screenshot in original post) it's not showing as the spot colour in the separations preview, it is displaying as CMYK, but why!? In the outer glow settings I've selected the spot colour.
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Check the spot swatch if it has not been converted to CMYK. It should have Book Color for Color Mode.
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Thanks, it does, still doesn't work. I didn't set up the file originally. I tried recreating the whole thing in a new file from scratch but even though I'm using the exact same settings for the outer glow it looks totally different, I really can't figure out what's going on!
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Can you share the Illustrator file (or a part of the file that shows the problem)?
CC File sharing, dropbox, WeTransfer...
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https://ramsayfairs.box.com/s/nnnxl4aq2f4g1hy1b6cne1fnkb57avv3
Let me know if that doesn't work, thank you so much!!
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I checked your Effect > Document Raster Effects Settings...
The Preserve spot colors checkbox was turned off.
Since you use a raster effect, it needs to be turned on.
That seems to work for me.
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Thank you so much!! I didn't even know that was a thing, thanks!
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Good to hear that helped.