Expert: Amy - 12/30/2007

Question
I'm trying to take a bw vector art image with multiple shades of black and
turn it into an image with the same multiple shades but in a spot color. Other
than taking each shade (ex: 46.7% black) and turning into Pantone 105 U with
the same 46.7% of the color separately? Is there anything that I can do in just
1 action?
thanks!

Answer
Hi Diane.

First I want to make sure you know that you can take that file directly to a printer and tell them to print the black plate in 105U.

You sound like you know what you're doing, so I'm going to guess that you really need to see it on screen, too. Probably for a client.

If you have CS3, you can use the Edit > Edit Colors tool to translate all your grays to any color in your swatch palette. All tints will be preserved.

Make sure 105U is in your swatch palette.
Select all the artwork.
Select Edit > Edit Colors.
In the resulting "Live Color" window, where it says Preset: Choose 1-color job from the drop down menu. In the box underneath that, the first column will show current colors. The second column (New) will have a smaller box in it. Double click on that box and the color picker pops up. Then click the Color Swatches button and scroll through the list until you find your Spot Color.

Let me know if that works for you (if you have CS3)!
-Amy