Comments on: Ask Designorati: Converting CMYK To Spots + Transparency

By: illustrator.lesson

illustrator.lesson — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 15:14:20 +0000

Dear!

I am new to this Website. I would like to post a question but I don’t know how to post a question here. Anyone knows how to figure it out and please feel kind to let me know. Sorry I am unaware of my knowledge here.

Thanks a lot and I am looking forward to hearing from you.

My best regards,

LUCK

By: Albert Zablit Photo

Albert Zablit Photo — Wed, 15 Sep 2010 13:36:19 +0000

Your second technique (duotone) works best for complex illustrations that were created with many layers stacked beforehand in different blending modes. Simple, fast and effective.
Thank you Jeremy!

Albert

By: Lisa

Lisa — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 18:30:30 +0000

Forgot to mention that I am working in Photoshop CS. Thanks!

By: Lisa

Lisa — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 18:29:29 +0000

I need to convert an image from CMYK to a spot color (pantone 202). How do I do that?

By: Jeremy Schultz

Jeremy Schultz — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 13:39:40 +0000

Sandra, that’s a complex question—maybe I will write an article about it. The key thing to remember is shirt inks don’t mix the way inks do on paper, and a white ink will probably be needed.

By: Sandra M

Sandra M — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 17:37:11 +0000

Hi there:

I have a question,
How do I convert a CMYK image to spot color in Photoshop to print in black tshirts?

Thanks!!!

By: Jeremy Schultz

Jeremy Schultz — Mon, 10 Sep 2007 03:48:45 +0000

I’m not sure you need an opaque background layerâ€”if you copy image data and paste it in a channel, I don’t think it matters what kind of layer you have. One thing to remember though is, if you’re having trouble and you’re working with an unflattened image or even a layered image, it gets complicated to make sure you are copying from the right layers with the right channel selected.

RE: duotone to CMYK, even if you are using black and process magenta as your two spot colors, it’s almost certain that your color settings will convert those two colors into mixes of the four CMYK colors. There are two things you can do:

(1) Create two monotone images, one with black and one with magenta, and with the same duotone curves you would have used. You can copy these images into individual channels of a CMYK document.

(2) Read my upcoming article this week on how to use a secret of Photoshop’s Color Settings to separate limited-palette images like these into CMYK images without the hassle posed by rich black!

By: Foba

Foba — Sat, 08 Sep 2007 01:00:32 +0000

That was quick! And very helpful indeed! Thanks! I feel dumb — I tried that before, without too much conviction, but since you said it worked, I tried harder… it took me awhile because I had transparency as backgroud — and it has to be white, or some opaque pixels… true?

And if I may, one more question: Is there any way to gracefully transform a duotone image into CMYK that only uses two channels… Am I interpreting duotone wrong? Shouldn’t this be possible if the two tones are, for example, pure M and pure K? (…probably not)

Thanks a lot for your time, Mr Designorati. (I’ll come up with more questions for sure!!)

By: Jeremy Schultz

Jeremy Schultz — Wed, 05 Sep 2007 11:27:26 +0000

Mr. Designorati…I’ve never been called that before. I think I kind of like it!

If I understand correctly, you want to create a CMYK image that uses just the magenta and black channel. What you’re starting out with is an image with an alpha channel and black. I would use simple cut-and-paste, because with the Channels palette you can paste data into single channels. Copy your alpha channel image and paste it into a new file’s magenta channel. Do the same thing with your black.

That should give you a CMYK file with the C and Y channels empty. A printer should be able to see this and output just the two plates.

By: Foba

Foba — Wed, 05 Sep 2007 06:13:09 +0000

Is there any way in which I can take the alpha channel created for a spot color (magenta) and replace it for the “real” channel in a CMYK image? Was I clear? I’ll try again: I’m printing in two channels (M and K) but I haven’t yet figured out how to convert a grayscale image into CMYK and NOT use the C nor Y channels. I understood the use of spot colors but I’d like to give the printman a “normal” document in CMYK… thank you thank you thank you mr. designorati.

By: mel

mel — Mon, 13 Aug 2007 10:50:52 +0000

helped a lot

By: Jeremy Schultz

Jeremy Schultz — Thu, 03 May 2007 11:25:14 +0000

Photoshop works with spot colors differently than Illustratorâ€”spot colors require a spot color channel (create one in the Channels palette) and AFAIK there’s no way to “convert” a CMYK color with a click of a button. As outlined in the story, create a new channel that specifies the spot color and then select, copy and paste particular elements to that channel.

By: Umer Farooq

Umer Farooq — Thu, 03 May 2007 11:14:38 +0000

i want to know how i convert an image with CMYK color to spot color in photoshop CS. with maximum output to print by screen printing.

By: ramysamy

ramysamy — Mon, 30 Apr 2007 10:41:12 +0000

how to convert cmyk image to spot in illustrator cs
thanks

By: eric

eric — Sun, 24 Dec 2006 01:49:11 +0000

try this javascript, sung lee

works for me perfectly almost every time

http://www.wundes.co...late.pl#CMYKtoPMS.js