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1

"When spot colors are used with transparency..."

Participant ,
Jul 19, 2016 Jul 19, 2016

Hi,

I'm getting the error message, "When spot colors are used with transparency, changing them to process colors outside of Illustrator can generate unexpected results."

I'm working in a file that will be printed in large volume and needs to be right before sending to printer.

How do I remedy this? I'm not entirely sure what a spot color is, so not really sure where to start.

On a bit of a time crunch, so explanations (not links to articles) would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

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Adobe
Community Expert ,
Jul 19, 2016 Jul 19, 2016

Please read this piece of the documentation to learn about spot colors:

Overview of color in Illustrator

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Enthusiast ,
Jul 19, 2016 Jul 19, 2016

you are likely not printing with spot colors if you don't know what they are.

in the swatches panel you can select all the spot colors, select the 'swatch options...' from the flyout menu or the button at the bottom of the palette, in the options panel choose "process color" from the 'color type menu'

that will convert all the swatches to process. spot colors in the swatches palette are represented with a little black dot on the bottom right corner.

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New Here ,
Oct 18, 2018 Oct 18, 2018

So I did all of this, but when I got to the options panel, the color-type menu was accessible.

Screen Shot 2018-10-18 at 5.44.21 PM.png

Any idea what to do in this case?

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Community Expert ,
Oct 18, 2018 Oct 18, 2018

Window >> Separations Preview (Check overprint to enable)

Do you see any other colors, besides CMYK? Those colors arento CMYK, but  in color model Spot, and you need to change to CMYK. You may have missed one, or for example you may have placed an image that has a spot color channel assigned in Photoshop. To help you find what elements are in the post color option click on the visibility eyeball to solo (show only) that color as in my example below showing only PMS 4655 C,

Screen Shot 2018-10-18 at 7.53.25 PM.png

Option click on the solo'ed eyeball to show all again.

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New Here ,
Jan 04, 2024 Jan 04, 2024

Thanks a lot, I found 1 color was seperated from the rest. as pantone.
It was from photoshop. And now I switched the colors within illustrator like you mentioned, and it's working!

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New Here ,
Oct 15, 2020 Oct 15, 2020

You sir.... are a genius! Thank you!

 

(or ma'am 😉

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New Here ,
Mar 13, 2023 Mar 13, 2023

I am not getting any options in the separation preview.

 

 

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Mentor ,
Mar 13, 2023 Mar 13, 2023

You're probably in RGB color mode... but start a new thread, this is from 2018.

Supply some screenshots...

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New Here ,
Sep 07, 2024 Sep 07, 2024

where is the thread plz? im in trouble

 

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Community Expert ,
Sep 07, 2024 Sep 07, 2024

@IBRAHIM A30017618od3n  schrieb:

where is the thread plz? im in trouble

 


 

Please create  new thread in the forum and describe the trouble as precisely as possible

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New Here ,
Mar 02, 2025 Mar 02, 2025

I am also facing same issue how do i solve this 

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Community Expert ,
Mar 03, 2025 Mar 03, 2025
LATEST

It's just a warning. 

What do you have in your artwork and what are you going to do with the artwork after saving?

 

Do you need the spot color for printing?

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Advocate ,
Jul 20, 2016 Jul 20, 2016

as you say time crunch...

usually stuff gets printed as 'process'

where the inks are Cyan Magenta Yellow and Black - 4 inks,

the 'process' is the images and text being made up using a mix of those inks.

Spot colour (Pantone Colours etc) are used to introduce a special specific ink colour,

so they literally stick a pot of orange for example in the system, so that your print is made of process + 1x spot ink,

or many more if you added lots of spot colours.

for your jobs it sounds like the best plan is just to get illustrator to convert those Spot colours (as te_co) explains, in your design to the nearest matching colour that can be printed using a mix of CMYK inks.

as far as the print job goes, additional spot colours cost more as there will be an extra plate, extra ink, another stage in the process, and often a different machine to run it on so it all adds on to the cost. so you generally only use spots for colours that can't be represented as well in CMYK, or to match more accurately and get better Solid looking colours especially noticeable in light and bright colours.

A pantone book is a great help for choosing colours and finding ones that work well when you have to use CMYK only to print.

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New Here ,
Nov 27, 2024 Nov 27, 2024

I had the same error, and I was able to solve it thanks to your publication, so thank you!

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New Here ,
Feb 24, 2025 Feb 24, 2025

This resolved a complex issue for me. Thank you. 

 

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