Expert: Laith Ibrahim - 2/11/2008

Question
Hi Laith,

I had to create a file using only 2 spot colors Pantone 185, and Pantone Black.  The file was sent back to me because it had process color in the file.  I had 2 shapes in the file that had effects on it.  I then realized that this was the reason that the file was not 2 color.  

The question is: if I can't use effects when printing 2 spot color files, how can I "blur" say, a circle so that it fades from the spot color being darker in the middle, fading toward the edge?  Also, is there a way that I CAN use effects with preserving the spot colors??

Thanks,
Shannon


Answer
Hi Shannon,

Yes you can "Blur" a circle from a spot color in the middle to the edge. Here's what you do:

1. Create the circle
2. create a gradient using your spot color and white (you can us e a spot color if you like). You can do that by opening the gradient menu and dragging your spot color (from the Pantone swatches palette) onto one corner of the gradient (onto the small square).
3. assign the gradient to your circle by simply dragging the gradient onto your circle. If the colors are reversed, simply drag each square to the opposite corner. If you press ALT ("Option" on MAC)and move one square to the opposite direction, the other square will move too.
4.Open the "attributes" menu from Window/Attributes and select the "Overprint Fill" option.
5. Go to View on the top menu bar of Illustrator and select "Overprint Preview".
6. To test the result, create any shape in illustrator, fill it with any color and put it behind the circle you just worked on. You'll see that the circle has transparent edges.

Here are two links that will give more information about creating effects using spot colors. I think they'll be more useful than me trying to explain everything in plain text.

http://rwillustrator.blogspot.com/2006/08/spot-colors-transparency-and.html
http://rwillustrator.blogspot.com/2006/05/retaining-spot-colors-without-losing_2...

I hope that the above information are clear and and sufficient. If you need any more help please let me know.

Best regards,


Laith