Can't export pdf with SPOT colours - what am I doing wrong?

[Daniel Richards]

Hi - 

I realise this topic has come up before, but I didn't manage to find any solution in any earlier posts.

I have an Affinity Designer document I need to export with SPOT colours for printing. Document format: CMYK/8, U.S. Web Coated (SWOP) v2.

The document contained pixel layers, which I converted to SPOT colours by selecting the sampled colour (in Affinity Photo), and then flood filling a new pixel layer with a SPOT colour (back in Designer). The file was then exported as a pdf (with 'honour spot colours' checked), and as a PSD file. The message I got back from the printer was that neither file contained any spot colours. 

Does anyone know why this is happening? How can I fix this?

Thanks in advance!

[NotMyFault]

To my knowledge Spot colors are used only for vector layers. Pixel layers just get the CMYK colors, there is no way to store the relation to a spot color.

[NotMyFault]

But you can use workarounds:

• create a rectangular shape covering the whole canvas for every spot color, and assign the spot color.
• put your pixel layer on top
•  using select sampled color, create a mask and nest it to the desired rectangle
• When done, deactivate or delete the pixel layer

[Daniel Richards]

Thanks NotMyFault!

Could you explain this step in a little more detail?

•  using select sampled color, create a mask and nest it to the desired rectangle

[NotMyFault]

When you have the selection active, just add a mask layer. This can be done via the layer menu, or the + symbol in the layer panel. The mask automatically inherits the active selection. Don’t forget to deselect all after creating the mask.

By default, the created mask is nested to the pixel layer. You can then click-drag it with mouse, hold it over the layer thumbnail of the rectangle, and let go. Repeat that process for every spot color.

[Daniel Richards]

Thanks! I'll try this.

[Daniel Richards]

Nope. The exported pdf file does include the SPOT colours, but shows only the rectangle, not the image... any ideas?

[NotMyFault]

Can you upload the actual image, or at least a small portion of it?

[NotMyFault]

Please try the file below, it shows how the layers should be arranged.

 

spot.afdesign

[thomaso]

An alternative way could be to set the pixel layer to "K Only" + apply the spot colour, like so:  v1105 pixel spot.pdf

[Daniel Richards]

Hi NotMyFault and thomaso,

Thank you both for the tips. I've tried both methods now, but the online file checker I'm using (https://www.presspdf.com/index-en) still indicates that no SPOT colours are included in the exported document. I'm beginning to wonder if I can trust this online tool... Can either of you suggest another method/online tool I can use (other than Adobe Acrobat)? I really don't want to bother the print company by sending more files in an incorrect format.

With both methods described above, clicking on the final layers indicates (in the colour panel) that a global colour (overprint and spot) has been applied - so this would suggest that something is going wrong at export, or the verification method I'm using is not giving a reliable result.

By the way - thank you so much for your patience and help. 

[lacerto]

The issue might be that you have tried to apply a spot color fill on a Pixel layer. Both "K Only" and spot color fill can only be applied to an Image layer. ("K Only" additionally requires that your document is in CMYK color mode). In Publisher, you can convert a Pixel layer to an Image layer by using Layer > Convert to Image Resource. If you're on macOS, you can use the same command from within a context menu also in Designer and Photo (on Windows, you can copy a pixel object on Clipboard and then Edit > Paste Special and choose "Portable Document Format" to convert a Pixel layer to an Image layer (but the image may be resized so you might need to scale it to have its previous dimensions).

You should be able to verify spot color status of an object in an exported PDF also by opening the file in your Affinity app, selecting the object and using the Color panel to see if the selected object has a spot color assigned.

[thomaso]

38 minutes ago, lacerto said:

You should be able to verify spot color status of an object in an exported PDF also by opening the file in your Affinity app, selecting the object and using the Color panel to see if the selected object has a spot color assigned.

Unfortunately in this case the workaround appears not to work, in my test pdf / in V1: Although the images open with colour both have "no colour" assigned and "K Only" not pressed … while the K channel appears quite pale if pressed now (… and it gets more odd if I try to apply the initial spot colour with K Only pressed.)

•

[Daniel Richards]

Hi Lacerto - my pixel layers have already been converted to image resources - so I'm pretty sure this is not the problem. Interestingly I have tried exporting both my file and the one posted above by NotMyFault as pdfs. I've opened both of these in Affinity designer and each image layer indicates 'no stroke, no fill' when clicked on in the layers panel... I've included two screengrabs of my export settings here.

[thomaso]

3 hours ago, Daniel Richards said:

I'm using (https://www.presspdf.com/index-en) still indicates that no SPOT colours are included in the exported document.

This website reports for my test pdf the used spot colour but I didn't find a way to see where in the pdf it is applied. The view in Acrobat:

[thomaso]

Since the Riso | Risograph print hard-/software works with spot inks you also might use workflows mentioned for this technique.

https://forum.affinity.serif.com/index.php?/search/&q=riso&quick=1

[Daniel Richards]

Ok - for those of you still interested in this thread - I've now downloaded a trial of Adobe Reader Pro so that I can verify my exports. Getting the same results in this app - the exported pdfs do not appear to contain the SPOT colours. This surely must mean that something is wrong at the document profile level or - at the export stage in Affinity...

[thomaso]

What do you get if you export this V1 .afpub with the Affinity preset "PDF/X-4" ?

v1105 pixel spot.afpub

v1105 pixel spot.pdf

 

Edited September 6 by thomaso
EDIT: file issue –> upload replaced

[Daniel Richards]

[Daniel Richards]

This appears to work - BUT - the spot colour layer is a vector layer. I have been able to export vector artwork with spot colours before (and using default PDF export settings...) Even when I convert the pixel layers to image layers they are still not exporting with spot colours - only CMYK...

[thomaso]

45 minutes ago, Daniel Richards said:

This appears to work

Your screenshot shows an unexpected result: the right image shows black in your export, whereas it was setup in my V1 .afpub with "K Only" activated. So, if my .afub did not open and display accordingly (-> the right image with spot only & no black) or if you did not deactivate "K Only" before export something went wrong, either when opening my V1 .afpub or when exporting with your V2.

EDIT: Sorry, something went wrong with my previous upload. – Can you try again with this .afpub:

EDIT 2: see next post.

 

Edited September 6 by thomaso

[thomaso]

Apparently I run into an odd issue with APub V1 which appears to deselect the pressed "K Only" button when opening a document. Although the macOS file preview and an exported PDF do show K Only and spot colour as expected I can't get it this way any more when re-opening this .afpub. This happens also now in my initial test .afpub (created months ago), while neither app relaunch nor mac reboot fix this new issue.

@Daniel Richards, this means if you want to export my document with spot colour for the pixel image you need to make sure "K Only" is pressed for the right image before export.

[lacerto]

6 hours ago, thomaso said:

Unfortunately in this case the workaround appears not to work, in my test pdf / in V1: Although the images open with colour both have "no colour" assigned and "K Only" not pressed … while the K channel appears quite pale if pressed now (… and it gets more odd if I try to apply the initial spot colour with K Only pressed.)

Yes, it only seems to work with text and vector objects. Spot bitmaps will be converted to CMYK. Placed PDFs with spot color assigned to images will pass through their spot color state, though. 

[Daniel Richards]

Here's a copy one of my project files - if anyone wants to have a go at exporting it, be my guest! It is a test piece for printing with three different inks - black, grey and white. It seems that the black and grey spot colours export to the pdf without any problem, but the white doesn't register in Acrobat output preview (when hovering over the white areas with the pointer) - this seems to indicate that there is nothing there...

Rockheim_Takboks_SØ_TEST.afpub

[MikeW]

If the image is a grayscale image when placed, the K-only button will remain depressed when closed and reopened. Coloring with the Pantone will result in a proper monotone spot color image. A rather anemic one using Pantone 2300 C, though. 

APub really needs to allow the import of duotone images. And APhoto really needs to be able to create them. Using black in the duotone allows the shadows to stand out.