Expert: Laith Ibrahim - 11/23/2007

Question
Hi Laith

Don't know if you can help me with this?

I'm producing a 2 colour document using 2 spot colours. In order to increase
the variety of the output I've used tints of thr colours in the design to produce
variations of shade.

My problem is that when I print the tone of the tints just seems to be totally
lost and it prints out as variations of grey. When I PDF it you see a similar
kind of thing in the preview of the document in Bridge, but when I open the
PDF the tones are back to normal.

Any ideas? If I send the PDF to a profesional printer with the tone looking
okay will they be able to print it as I wish, or will they experience something
similar?

Many thanks for you're help?

Jim - London

Answer
Hi Jim,
I assumed that you're using very light tints of the 2 spot colors (Don't go under 10). The preview doesn't matter since your PDF colors look good.
Are the colors of your printer usually washed out and light? Too light variations of your spot colors will yield grays on some printers. You can also check the printing options on your printer bt I guess you did that already.
Save your PDF with "Press" or PDF/X-1a option and everything should be print fine at the printing press.
Please let me know if you need anything else.