Expert: Amy - 11/4/2004

Question
Hello. I'm using version 8.0 on a Mac.

I'm attempting to print spot-color separations which contain halftones. For example... I'm trying to blend from solid red into solid orange, the middle section of the fade being comprised of halftone dots to create the fade. In Illustrator, I created spot colors and used them for each end of the gradient. Everything looks fine on-screen.

My problem is that when printed as separations, the dots, which should be interlocked, are NOT interlocking. Instead of red dots being printed to fill a round hold in the orange, I'm getting an overlapping of the dots. When the two seps are aligned (registered), I get negative-space dots showing through. The dots of one color are printing on top of the dots from the other color, instead of filling the holes in the other color.

What do I need to do to make the red dots fill the holes in the orange, and vice-versa?

I hope I explained this in a manner that makes sense.

Thanks, Scott

Answer
Hi Scott,

Your explanation makes perfect sense - very clear.

This sounds like a problem with the screen angles.

In Separation Setup, scroll down to the bottom of that list of color plates to be printed and click on your spot color, one at a time. You'll see that the screen angles for both are probably defaulting to 45 degrees, in other words, they're going to overlap.

Now when you take the file to a print shop, they'll rip it and use their own settings, so you don't need to be concerned about it after you discuss it with them.

But for your current needs, I believe if you set the Red (or darkest ink) to 45 and the Orange or lightest ink to 108.4 degrees, you'll get good results. This combination of angles doesn't always work, so talk to your press operator for the right angles.

I hope this works, let me know!
Amy Pace