Expert: Kevin Stohlmeyer - 7/24/2010

Question
QUESTION: I have a client that sent me their one color (orange) logo. PMS 167 I believe.  The logo was a JPEG and about 4K in size. I told them that it wouldn't work because of the resolution quality. I took the logo into Photoshop, (because I don't know Illustrator that well at all) and was able to "fix" it so that it was a higher resolution, had sharp edges, and basically worked for newspaper ads and four color projects. My problem is this. I was just given a 2 color brochure project, and opened the Photoshop logo version in Illustrator. I saved it as an Illustrator .ai document, but when I sent the entire file to the printer, they said the logo was still 4 color. My limited understanding is that if you create or update a logo in Photoshop, it will be 4 color. I need to figure out how to take this logo and make it a one color logo (and quickly.)  How do I convert this four color logo into a one color logo using Illustrator? Is there another Mac program that I can open this logo in and work with to accomplish this? I am running CS3, Mac based, and am looking for some assistance. Please help! Time sensitive brochure and printer is waiting to print.

ANSWER: Hi Doug,

What you are trying to do is wrong. Illustrator cannot convert Photoshop files in that way. What you will need to do is open it in Photoshop. This is going to take a bit so bear with me . First, convert it to grayscale. Then go to image>image mode and go to duotone. Choose the monotone setting and click on the black color swatch. Choose the appropriate pms color and hit ok. Then go back to image mode and change it to multichannel. Then save this as a dcs file format. It will save as an .eps. Choose single file color composite in the dialog box.

Thanks

Kevin

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Kevin,

I opened the file in photoshop. Converted to Greyscale. Made it a duotone. Chose the monotone setting and clicked on the black color swatch. This is where the first problem occurred. I selected the appropriate PMS color and hit ok. It changed to that color, but it was faded, almost like a 50% of the true color. I checked the percentage of the color and it was set at 100%. I continued just to see what would happen, and when I changed it to multichannel it converted back to grey. I saved as a dcs file and it did save as an .eps, but still grey. I chose single file color composite in the dialog box but still grey. Any advice?  One thing I did do initially when trying to figure this out on my own was select the color as Pantone 167 PC, not Pantone 167 C. Would that have anything to do with it?

ANSWER: Hi Doug

PC is still process color. Choose c for coated or u for uncoated. This should solve your issue. The reason yor color looked washed out is that your logo is not just black and white it does contain grayscale. You would have to pretty much recreate this logo as a black only image to fix this.

I hope this helps since I will be unavailable until tomorrow to follow up.

Thanks

Kevin

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Kevin,

I re-created the logo from scratch in Photoshop, using black only as the color. All the steps you outlined worked again until I got to the point of changing it to multichannel, and it converted it to grey again. Not sure why that happened. I went into Illustrator and (after a few hours) was able to re-create the logo using the Pantone color 167C, and that seemed to work. I sent the file to the printer last night and he said everything looks good on his end. I appreciate your assistance; I'm curious about the Photoshop step that I can't seem to get correct but at least the immediate problem has been solved, thanks to you. Appreciate all your help. Doug

Answer
Hi Doug,

Im glad you were able to get the logo to work for your project. I have tried the exact same steps I gave you, and everything worked. Not sure why you are ending up with just black as the image.

I will check in to it with CS3, if I find something is off, I will let you know. In the meantime, if you want to send me the logo file as a jpg in a private question, that would help. I want to make sure you dont run into this again.

Thanks

Kevin