Adobe Photoshop Training with Dan Margulis

What is the proper procedure for making a 2-color (Pantone) Photoshop file from a 2-color (solid) scan to have the Photoshop file separate from within a Quark file.

Obviously, I could convert the Photoshop scan to an Illustrator file and with that I don't have a problem, but I wanted to save time by using the original scan.

In the past, I have selected each of the two solid colors in the scan and filled them with 100% of each of two process colors (c,m,y or k) and then output those two plates within Quark using whatever Pantone ink was called for.

Will the Photoshop file itself trap the two colors where they abut?

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If you want 2 spot colors in Photoshop, you1ll need to make two separate channels and put each color in its own channel. You can define them anyway you want, either as cyan-magenta or as PMS 485-PMS 116 (spot channels).

They will not trap unless you trap them manually in Photoshop. For 300dpi files at full size, a 1 pixel trap is perfect for most printing(.0032).

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If you want 2 spot colors in Photoshop, you1ll need to make two separate

channels and put each color in its own channel. You can define them anyway

you want, either as cyan-magenta or as PMS 485-PMS 116 (spot channels).

And I'll add that you need to save the file as a DCS file (combined, with preview) for Quark.

A warning about DCS files though, they aren't made for composite workflows. If you are sending to a colour laser printer or to a RIP with in-RIP separations you will only get the preview. You have to run your separations from Quark.

For anyone who needs to process a bunch of these types of files, there is a program to fix it called DCSMerger but it isn't cheap.

(I just checked in PS 7 and the choices are given as DCS 1.0 and DCS 2.0 - anyone know which version to use? I can't remember. I don't think PS used to list the version numbers...)

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They will not trap unless you trap them manually in Photoshop. For 300dpi

files at full size, a 1 pixel trap is perfect for most printing(.0032).

True, but one important caution is omitted. If you are using two spot colors and printing them out of the magenta and cyan channels, to trap them you have to have the darker of the two spot colors in the magenta and the lighter in the cyan, otherwise the trap will be backwards.

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A warning about DCS files though, they aren't made for composite

workflows. If you are sending to a colour laser printer or to a RIP with in-RIP separations you will only get the preview. You have to run your

What do people running CTP do with these sorts of files? We just had a 5-color job with a 2/c DCS ad on a 2/c flat and we had to run that ad out of Quark and strip it for double-burning to the imposed flats.

The Photoshop manual says you can save as DCS 2 or as a PDF. We tried saving it as a PDF. This separated out of Acrobat 6 to a b/w laser printer, but when we plopped the PDF into the main job's pdf, it didn't separate to our imagesetter. :-/

It also only displays the black printer although you can see Acrobat draw the color printer (in b/w) to screen just before it covers it up w/the black printer.

For anyone who needs to process a bunch of these types of

files, there is a program to fix it called DCSMerger but it

Yeah, we have this pop up only 2 or 3 times a year.

You need to use DCS 2.0.

Adobe Photoshop training classes are taught in the US by Sterling Ledet & Associates, Inc.