Expert: Kevin Stohlmeyer - 10/22/2010

Question
Hi i have a bussiness card that i have to make sure has only
2 spot colours. in the seperations preview its showing it
has CMYK and 3 spots and it doesnt even show anything on the
art board when i turn all but cmyk off? and then when i open
a new blank document it shows cmyk in it? can anyone please
tell me how to get rid of cmyk for my seperations!?

Answer
Hi Ell,

You have to make sure that all images have a true spot color assigned to them. It sounds like the file is not using true spot colors.

To find out what colors are actually being used try these steps: 1. Go to swatches panel and using the options menu, choose "Select All Unused". Delete these swatches. 2. Go back to the options menu and choose "Add All Used Colors" and this will add in all the colors you are currently using in the document. This will show you everything being used in the image.

A spot color will show up in the swatches panel as a swatch with a white corner and a dot in the lower right hand side. If you do not see the dot, you have no spot!

For any color that is in the document that is not currently using a spot color (that shows up in the CMYK Separations) you will have to select it and change it to a spot color using the swatches panel. You can load up a Pantone Swatch Library from either the options menu or the Window menu.

Thanks

Kevin