2-color separations

[geogrimus]

Hello eveyone. I was handed a flyer that was originally created in Quark but now is in PDF form. It was created in CMYK, however the printer (who is using a 2-color press) needs to see the separations, basically in orange and process blue, in order to make his plates. I know in Adobe Acrobat that I can print to PDF using the separations button to create a four page file separating out the CMYK, but the printer only needs to see the two colors. Is there a way to print out only the orange and then only the process blue using any of the Adobe software products?

Thank you for your help!

[jimking]

If it's cmyk then there is no orange. You'll have cyan, magenta, yellow and black. Is the pressman asking for a 2 color proof for matching on press? Or he just wants to see color breaks? If you have a contract postscript color proofer, you should be able to release just the two colors you need to the proofer through your rip software.

[urstwile]

Do you have Illustrator? You could try opening the PDF file in Illustrator and then converting the process orange and blue to spot colors for two plates.

[jimking]

Urstwile I'm pretty sure it's just cmyk. When a press is only a 2 color press the pressmen needs a 2 color proof to match the first pass from the press. Then they'll run it through to lay the 2 remaining colors. They also should have a composite proof to match all 4 colors. That's what I'm getting from the post. The orange thing doesn't make sinse to me. I'm thinking geo means magenta or is confusing it with a mix of yellow and magenta.

[Silence04]

if you're talking about giving them a cmyk file for a flyer that is being printed in 2 Colors, then you'll need to separate the "Blue" and "Orange" in to 2 individual Color Channels. I'm guessing right now your Blue and Orange elements are made up of Multiple Color Channels.
Make everything that is suppose to be "Blue" 100% of one Color Channel, and everything that is "Orange" 100% of another Channel and leave the other 2 channel empty, or delete them in mutlichannel mode... Just make sure your printer knows what those colors actually represent for the final printed piece.

if this is even the case?

[rickself]

That's the jist i was getting. Take the two channels that are strongest representatives of the blue and orange and sep them out.

[JLockwood]

i hate using Quark, anyone else with me?

[budafist]

i hate using Quark, anyone else with me?

Yes! I also hate files that come in not properly set up :mad:

[urstwile]

Jim, I was just throwing that out there in case the printer truly needs a two-channel (plate) file, rather than a mix. I see what you're saying though, sort of, although I've never heard of it being done that way.

I defer to your press skills, however. :)

[jimking]

Jim, I was just throwing that out there in case the printer truly needs a two-channel (plate) file, rather than a mix. I see what you're saying though, sort of, although I've never heard of it being done that way.

I defer to your press skills, however. :)
If the printer only has a 2/c press instead of a 4/c press and the pressmen is going to run a 4/c job on a 2/c press, he'll need two types of color proofs to do the job correctly. The first proof will represent the 2 colors the pressmen chooses to lay down first. Most of the time pressmen will choose yellow and magenta but not all the time. He'll then use the 2/c proof to match. The second proof will be the composite 4/c proof to match on his second pass when laying down the last 2 colors. urstwile, do you remember "color key proofs"? These where 4 very thin transparent overlays taped to cover stock. You were able to lift each color away from the other like pages in a book to see in what order the ink would be laid down. These old proofs where used years ago in the same way as stated above.

[rickself]

YAAAY, Color Keys!

That's a good education on running a 4-color job on a 2-color press, too. Thanks, Jim.

[urstwile]

I love you press guys. And yup, I do remember color keys. :)

[Broacher]

Jim,

I worked in a shop where we did this with our two-colour press. As you said, it was two runs-- Mag/Yel and then Cyan/Black. Actually, for critical stuff we went to 4 passes as it registered better (which might explain why we didn't do a LOT of this stuff).

A reasonably useable 2 ink proof from your colour laser or other proofing device can be generated by creating a PDF of the page and opening that up in Photoshop. By default, the PDF comes in as a floating layer. Just dbl-clk the layer to bring up the Style/Blending options and click off the channels you want to exclude, then print. Overprints are preserved with this method (provide they're in the PDF), but not all the postscript stuff like screen info, etc. Still, for the majority of stuff, it's a decent start.

[jimking]

Jim,

I worked in a shop where we did this with our two-colour press. As you said, it was two runs-- Mag/Yel and then Cyan/Black. Actually, for critical stuff we went to 4 passes as it registered better (which might explain why we didn't do a LOT of this stuff).

A reasonably useable 2 ink proof from your colour laser or other proofing device can be generated by creating a PDF of the page and opening that up in Photoshop. By default, the PDF comes in as a floating layer. Just dbl-clk the layer to bring up the Style/Blending options and click off the channels you want to exclude, then print. Overprints are preserved with this method (provide they're in the PDF), but not all the postscript stuff like screen info, etc. Still, for the majority of stuff, it's a decent start.
Jeez, one color at a time! Heck it would take quadruple time to get it done. :) Our rip is piped to our contract color proofer and the ctp. All I'd have to do is steer the ripped file to the proofer and click off 2 colors and it'll send a composite of those to colors only. What's really stange is the person who started this post never replied. :confused: