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jaronmader
Participant
January 31, 2019
Answered

Exporting using Magenta as placeholder for spot colour?

  • January 31, 2019
  • 3 replies
  • 2189 views

Hi!

I am collaborating on a large InDesign document- the final doc will be black and white + one Pantone. In the IDD file they are using magenta as a placeholder for the spot colour.

I am proofing submitted ads for the project lead in photoshop... basically making the ads greyscale and such. One advertiser has asked we make a certain word print in the Pantone, which is something we do for people, but it’s a flat jpeg. Cool.

Now I can think of a few sloppy solves for this, but my instinct was to make the ad greyscale in PS, then just add an alpha channel in 100% magenta in place of the Pantone- easy peezy.

On import into InDesign, however, I get the error that a spot colour can’t be named the same as a process colour.

So is the issue using the alpha channel for M? Should I just be exporting a CMYK from PS with the C and Y channels erased? I also tried renaming the magenta in photoshop with a plan to delete the dummy swatch and replace with real magenta once I was in InDesign but it seems that swatch info is set in stone.

The leads solution was to export the grey TIF then export the spot layer separately, and put them together in illustrator (!?) and export as an EPS but that sounds completely bats**t.

TL;DR

need to export a greyscale + spot image using magenta as a placeholder for the Spot, but InDesign doesn’t like it.

    This topic has been closed for replies.
    Correct answer rob day

    In the IDD file they are using magenta as a placeholder for the spot colour.

    InDesign doesn't allow Spot colors that conflict with the CMYK process color names for good reason—in a separated workflow the plates would both be marked as Magenta, inviting confusion during press setup. You'll run into the same problem with Illustrator.

    Also, InDesign also has no grayscale space, in a separated workflow placed grayscale objects are output to the CMYK black plate. The ID document can't really be Black + a spot color—the output or export will always be CMYK + Spot with the CMY plates blank.

    I'm wondering if you are taking the spot color instructions too literally? The InDesign document you are collaborating on can't have a spot color named Magenta, so it would be important for you to find out what the doc‘s spot color is actually named and use it for your Photoshop spot channel‘s name.

    3 replies

    T
    Test Screen Name
    Legend
    January 31, 2019

    I think you're probably OK in a CMYK workflow, as it knows they aren't colorants. If you were to send an RGB PDF, these would still probably be OK, because the final colour space is CMYKish... except in a blend space of RGB. I suspect one could come up with a situation where they don't work.

      rob day
      Community Expert
      rob dayCommunity Expert
      Community Expert
      January 31, 2019

      I also wonder if the output from the OP's group collaboration is actually an attempt to output just the Process Black and Process Magenta plates, and then run a custom ink from the magenta plate. In that case any spot color(s) could be Aliased to the Magenta plate via InDesign’s Ink Manager, but then the name of the spots would not matter.

        J
        jaronmaderAuthor
        Participant
        January 31, 2019

        I believe we’re using this placeholder as they haven’t picked the colour, I expect its that or some printer shenanigans.

        I‘m sure the issue is I’ve assigned an alpha channel rather than just a regular channel- understanding that it’s going to transfer to CMYK once it hits InDesign is also super helpful- I will test and come back to mark correct!

        rob day
        Community Expert
        rob dayCommunity ExpertCorrect answer
        Community Expert
        January 31, 2019

        In the IDD file they are using magenta as a placeholder for the spot colour.

        InDesign doesn't allow Spot colors that conflict with the CMYK process color names for good reason—in a separated workflow the plates would both be marked as Magenta, inviting confusion during press setup. You'll run into the same problem with Illustrator.

        Also, InDesign also has no grayscale space, in a separated workflow placed grayscale objects are output to the CMYK black plate. The ID document can't really be Black + a spot color—the output or export will always be CMYK + Spot with the CMY plates blank.

        I'm wondering if you are taking the spot color instructions too literally? The InDesign document you are collaborating on can't have a spot color named Magenta, so it would be important for you to find out what the doc‘s spot color is actually named and use it for your Photoshop spot channel‘s name.

          T
          Test Screen Name
          Legend
          January 31, 2019

          In fact, there wouldn't be two plates, a process and spot magenta. The rules of PostScript and of PDF are: if a plate is called "Magenta" it goes on the process separation, and that's that, whatever boxes you might have ticked in design apps. So, really, any app which lets you create a "spot" plate with one of the four process names Cyan, Magenta, Yellow or Black (exactly that, one upper case character, not translated to other languages), is at fault unless it's intentionally giving you spot-like per-plate control of the process plate.

            T
            Test Screen Name
            Legend
            January 31, 2019

            (PS: the plate names All and None are also magic and must not be used for spot plates. The names Red, Green and Blue could cause problems as they are colorants in DeviceRGB).

            c.pfaffenbichler
            Community Expert
            c.pfaffenbichlerCommunity Expert
            Community Expert
            January 31, 2019

            Why a potholder instead of a proper Spot Color anyway?

            I get the error that a spot colour can’t be named the same as a process colour.

            So is the issue using the alpha channel for M?

            So you did create a Spot Channel, not just a »plain« Channel.

            Please post a screenshot with the pertinent Panels visible.

            In any case, if Magenta it has to be then it seems you should indeed use a CMYK image with the original grayscale in the black Channel.

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