Publisher ink management

[Raymondo]

When, if ever will publisher incorporate the ability to manage inks for output? I’m referring to the ability to switch off CMY when outputting a two colour job or am I missing something. So far, as far as I’m aware, there is still no way to create a true duotone or tritone. Fortunately,  I don’t create two colour jobs every day but I do like to consider this as an option for some commissions when printing litho to keep costs down.

[wonderings]

Why would you not set your files up this way to begin with? I have never exported a file from Indesign doing something like that. I create the file for the intended output. Not saying you should not be able to do this, just not sure why you would want to. Is there a specific market that would use something like this?

[Old Bruce]

5 minutes ago, wonderings said:

Is there a specific market that would use something like this?

It is all about cost, some customers want a bit of colour to make the poster stand out, you don't need Process Colour (cmyk) for that, there are a hell of a lot of one colour presses out there which can do a double run, once in Blue and once in Black. If you know a printer who can do a two colour job for less money you'll be happy and your customer will be happy too.

[Raymondo]

Hi Wonderings

Generally printing will be done out of the standard four-colour process. This means that the artwork is separated onto four different printing plates and each plate prints a specific single colour – cyan, magenta, yellow and black (CMYK). Together these colours combine to create a full-colour print. Occasionally additional printing plates might also be added to print spot colours. These may be special inks such as fluorescent or metallic or a specific Pantone ink that matches a corporate colour. Similarly, there might be fewer colours used such as two-colour printing where only two specified colours will be printed, and because only two printing plates are being made this is cheaper than four-colour litho. 

digital printing on the other hand works with toners or inks and uses CMYK output and does not require plates so in this respect you don’t need to worry about plate separation. Digital print is cost effective only up to about a 2000 run. If you have a run of say 5000 or more for instance, then litho would be your route, so, that’s when you need to consider how to produce a creative design within the clients budget. Creating your design with only two inks i.e black + one Pantone colour is a cheaper option. You may even consider using using two Pantone colours as long as the text is readable. This can give your design colour at less cost than 4 colour process printing so, your output needs to tell the printer to produce two plates not 4 hence why you need to turn off CMY.

Old Bruce has I think explained adequately my post but I thought I would expand on his post so that you know why Publisher needs the ability to turn off unnecessary plates. Most printers here in the UK will happily handle a two colour job.

hope this answers your query.

[wonderings]

I understand how print works, been in print all my life you could say, it is the family business.

I have just never seen anyone do 2 colour jobs this way. I get it for 1 colour just convert to grayscale. I also do this stuff before hand so the file is good anywhere it goes and is set properly. I have never seen a shop with a 1 colour press, does anyone use those? Common are the Quickmasters that I think just about every shop has. 

If the job is setup properly and you are exporting your PDF from Publisher (don't think you can print separations at the moment but I could be wrong) your RIP should be able to see those colours and let you only image the plate the colours you want. If you want to create a duotone I think you will have to go to Photoshop or Photo if it can do that. There might be easier ways, it rarely comes up and I have probably only dealt with duo tones a handful of times since digital came in. Our 2 colours still have plenty of work, we have 2 QM's, usually only one running at a time but there are moments when both are humming along. 

As I mentioned before if the file is setup properly, i.e Pantone + K or Pantone + Pantone, your RIP should see them and image just those colours. Now the issue is probably Publisher not printing out files without converting to CMYK or RGB, that is an issue though the easy solution is move to a PDF workflow. I stopped printing directly to any of our printers years ago. Workflow now is everything is finalized in Indesign, colours and everything else checked there, then exported to PDF and that PDF is used to impose with offline imposition or I impose it on Preps which is connected to Apogee which takes care of everything really. 

I think I just misunderstood the original post thinking you wanted to create duotones directly in Publisher.

 

 

[Raymondo]

I'm sorry if you appear to have been offended but the way your question was phrased, it didn't seem to be what I would expect from someone in the print trade. Most printers I have worked with over the years all have 2/4/6 colour presses not one and never did I think printers have just one colour presses not unless you are back in the 1800's. I'm still not sure what you mean by not having seen a 2 colour job this way. In design terms I would set my job automatically using 100% black and one other pantone chosen colour for a two colour job. Come output time I would normally in InDesign via the ink manager, uncheck CMY thus leaving black and one pantone colour for separation.

In Publisher I cannot do that and nor can I create a true duotone using two colours, that was the crux of my topic. I have been outputting my designs via press ready PDF's seamlessly since 2001. I will normally only use the digital route for less than 5000 run. Beyond that digital is in my opinion is not economic. Over the years I have designed many two colour journals, company annual reports etc where it was not necessary to print CMYK and the emphasis was on keeping the cost of the job down. With careful design thought, a designer can create a very interesting colourful end result playing with those two chosen colours. I might add, I have on occasion not used black but used a dark pantone colour such as, say dark blue instead of black, maintaining text clarity whilst giving me a wider range of colour variation using tints of the two colours.

If I were to send a CMYK+Pantone press ready PDF to a litho press as is, I would get 5 plates hence why I'm saying at this moment in time, I cannot turn off CMY in Publisher so that a two colour press can be used. therefore I can't create a two colour job in Publisher because I can't output a two colour job as a press ready pdf. I would say again, I have been outputting press ready artwork since 2001 so I'm very familiar with the process. I have to say I'm a little confused with your question but I've tried here to answer your reply as best I can. This topic was more aimed at the dev team who I'm sure will know and understand my original topic. I don't think it's worth us expanding this any further as I don't know what else to say to you.

Anyway, best wishes. 

[shuddemell]

He wants to export separations. And yes, there is a great utility to being able to do this, particularly as the OP points out in duotones and spot work. As a 35 year graphic arts professional and prepress technician, this is very useful and in some cases absolutely essential. In addition, to this point, object level overprint is a necessity for this to be feasible.