Previewing a white spot color?

[turner111]

Hi all,

I have a design with white objects to be printed on a black t-shirt (as well as other CMYK content).

I'm converting the white to a spot color, and it shows up in the plates list (Illustrator and Acrobat), but I can't figure out how to actually see it...

Everything else shows up normally. Any tips?

thanks

[marliton]

Hi. You can draw a no-printing Background to simulate the t-shirt color. Also, you can use another color instead of white.

[turner111]

Hi marliton,

thanks for your note!

Yes, I'm able to simulate the background color (black) but I want to be able to see the white ink where it's actually white. It's not appearing at all right now.

[marliton]

Maybe, you have activated the overprint function. Check it in the Attributes panel.

[turner111]

Tried that! Either way, it just appears to be a slightly different black than the background, barely visible.

[Monika Gause]

Illustrator can't simulate opaque ink.

[meganchi]

When selecting your white art, is your appearance panel or transparency set to 100% normal? Are you sure you don't have "multiply" or some other attribute applied?

I can't replicate your issue. I can see white spot ink on my tshirt file. Make sure the white areas are NOT set to "overprint" in your fill or stroke on the art.

You mention other cmyk content, so wondering if you can show us a screen shot of your design vs the viewing issue?

[Monika Gause]

meganchi  schrieb

When selecting your white art, is your appearance panel or transparency set to 100% normal? Are you sure you don't have "multiply" or some other attribute applied?

I assume it's set to overprint, because often that's what printing services tell you to do with white undercoat.

[meganchi]

I guess if they want to keep the white set to overprint, then another option in Illustrator is under the Separation Preview panel, turn off "overprint preview".

[jdanek]

What is the spot color you are using for White? Just apply any spot color that will show up like Pantone Yellow.  That will separate and then any plastisol can be used on press.

[turner111]

No specific color - just white converted to spot.

[jdanek]

If I am not mistaken, white in Illustrator, as part of the process color system, is no color. It is actually your paper color.

Sent from my iPhone

[turner111]

Here's what I've got - I can't seem to display just the white (spot) plate. (Black is in place here only to be able to see the white artwork.)

[meganchi]

OK, if this is purely so you can see what areas are truly going to print with white ink, then on your white spot color, double-click it and change the cmyk values to another color build that is visible.

Bottom line for any job sent to a print service bureau is that you can assign the name "white" to any spot ink color. In essence it's just a color separation with a name that gets output to plate (indicating what color should print). It doesn't matter what the color build is, you can rename it "white". Then you can turn off and on the "white" separation to preview the areas assigned to that color.

[Mariam Hovhannesyan]

Double-click the "White" swatch in the Swatches Panel insideIllustrator. Change the top dropdown menu to Spot Color: Click Okay. Now select all the white elements in your piece and ensure they are using that swatch for the stroke/fill color.

[turner111]

That's exactly what I did.