Timber Posted March 30, 2017 Share Posted March 30, 2017 Hi, I've been trying to prepare a file to send to states side printer Zoo Printing, they have an instruction sheet how to do in Illustrator/InDesign (see attached PDF). I can replicate the steps in AD - but their prepress department tells me my exported PDF doesn't have the SpotUV layer. I've gone over this dozens of times, the layer is selected by exporting. If anyone has wrestled getting files to work for SpotUV, especially for Zoo Printing, please advise. Thanks - Timber SPOT UV indesign Tutorial 1.pdf Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hokusai Posted March 30, 2017 Share Posted March 30, 2017 Timber, As far as I know, unless something has changed, Designer doesn't yet have the ability to export PDF files with layers. A work around would be to create your UV areas as a spot colour (one that you aren't using for anything else) and tell them that the spot colour is the UV or just create a global colour and name it Spot UV. Hope that helps, Hokusai Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeW Posted March 30, 2017 Share Posted March 30, 2017 Sure, AD supports layers. And if ZOO wants layers (not technically needed), then make the top-most layer for the spot uv layer just like the guide shows for Illy. Of the PDF/X types, only PDF/X-4 supports layers. But I would just export using the PDF (for export) setting and make sure to click on More and see if the Honor Spot Colors is checked and check it if it is not. I have attached a simple example and its PDF. Now do note that while the presentation in the PDF is correct, the actual layers are reversed in the Layers panel of the PDF. I don't know if it matters to ZOO or not. Ad is the only application I have that is odd in this respect. Mike UV Spot Layers.afdesign UV Spot Layers.pdf Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hokusai Posted March 30, 2017 Share Posted March 30, 2017 MikeW, Thanks for pointing out that PDF/X-4 supports layers, I wasn't aware of it. Hokusai Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Timber Posted March 31, 2017 Author Share Posted March 31, 2017 Thanks for the responses so far... still hopeful I can supply workable files for the printer to do SpotUV. I will try sending a PDF/X4 export file. Meanwhile, I think I see another issue... I'm assuming anything drawn in AD can be duplicated into the SpotUV layer and it's color fill simply changed to the specified SpotUV color the printer wants. Now, one of the images I'm using is a PNG file exported from AP, and placed into this AD file, so that it's has no background when placed. When I go to fill it with the SpotUV color, it produces a rectangle... so I'm thinking the SpotUV - if we get it to work - is going to cover the rectangle of the image and NOT the image's shape, the shape is where I want the SpotUV applied. You can see the text is correctly spotuv color filled at the top, just barely visible with the rectangle fill of the PNG image placement. How best can I produce an outline of the image so that I can fill it with the SpotUV color? Am I thinking this through correctly? See files attached. – Timber Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeW Posted March 31, 2017 Share Posted March 31, 2017 Without seeing the whole design, it's hard to say. That is, does the background being the image extend on the whole design? If so, does Zoo offer a flood varnish option? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Timber Posted March 31, 2017 Author Share Posted March 31, 2017 Mike, if I read your question correctly ,,, The only part of the (business card) design we're spec'ing to be SpotUV is the horse logo and the text - company. Everything else should be flat/regular. They have a 'flood varnish' option, if that means the glossing the entire side of the job, we don't want that. Just spot areas. So I'm still left thinking - seems the SpotUV overlay images have to be the same shape as the underlying objects - therefore if it's a placed png raster object from Affinity Photo, how best to create an outline of it's shape. A simple rectangle is quick to draw/outline, the horse logo pictured has a lot of detail to try and outline by with pen tool. Cheers – Timber Back2.pdf Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeW Posted March 31, 2017 Share Posted March 31, 2017 OK. Then you will need to at least roughly outline the horse. I would use the pen tool. Also, I don't know if it was intentional or accidental for this PDF, but your bleed--the blue background--doesn't extend off the page into the bleed area. It needs to else there will be gaps when trimmed. Mike Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeW Posted March 31, 2017 Share Posted March 31, 2017 Here's a rough trace to get ya started. Mike horse.afdesign Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Timber Posted March 31, 2017 Author Share Posted March 31, 2017 Hi Mike, you did the outline, fairly quickly, with the pen tool? Thank you! It makes me think it's not that difficult or an investment in time to do so as/when needed. The background fill was short for bleed and fixed in the current file. Good eye to catch that too. I am most appreciative of your advice and suggestions, I'm hopeful I can supply files that the printer can utilize. I'll post back later. Hopefully your contributions here will enlighten and help others trying to produce files for SpotUV needs from Affinity Designer. Cheers – Timber Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeW Posted March 31, 2017 Share Posted March 31, 2017 Ah, heck no, I didn't draw it. I used AI's trace on a version of the horse that I tweaked to make it entirely black in an image editing application. All in all about 1 minute worth of effort on my part--which consited of moving a slider in the image editing application I use and copy/paste into AI and using its autotrace feature, export to SVG and opened that in AD and saved the AD version. I didn't try overlaying it on the actual image and so it may take a little tweaking, but may just be good enough. Something like this horse would have taken me about 5 minutes or a little less to draw the outline of using the pen tool and likely it would have been a closer match. I like speed, though, and would have done the same process above I used for your job. Mike Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Timber Posted March 31, 2017 Author Share Posted March 31, 2017 Mike is there any way you know of, in Affinity Photo, to select the background of the PNG, reverse the selection so that only the horse is selected, then save the selection and use that for the outline in AD? See attached screen shot of marching ants that really capture the outline closely. Until we get a trace tool in AD,,, don't have AI for tracing ;-( – Timber Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeW Posted March 31, 2017 Share Posted March 31, 2017 Sorry, I don't use APhoto. What would be needed is to be able to turn the selection into a vector path and have that path available in AD. I have no idea if that can be done with Serif's applications or not. I'm away from a computer now but can do this later if wanted/needed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Staff MEB Posted March 31, 2017 Staff Share Posted March 31, 2017 Hi Timber. No, it's not possible to convert a selection to a path (only the opposite). You have to either use a third party app to auto trace the image or trace it manually using the Pen Tool. Here's the horse in PDF (vector) format: horse.pdf Quote A Guide to Learning Affinity Software | Affinity Quick Reference Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Timber Posted April 1, 2017 Author Share Posted April 1, 2017 MEB, MikeW and Hokusai - again, thank you very much for the feedback and images!!!!! I'm resubmitting the files on Monday and I think/hope they will work for the printer. I will update this posting. It would be great to see both an auto-tracing capability added to Affinity Designer AND the ability to convert selections in Affinity Photo to paths! Both I think would be very useful in day to day activities and further these wonderful products. Cheers – Timber Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Timber Posted May 16, 2017 Author Share Posted May 16, 2017 I've had two successful printing jobs now using SpotUV with Affinity Designer. The results are exactly as I envisioned and setup in AD. The key thing I needed was the suggestion above from MikeW to export as a PDF/x-4. Now one needs to setup the file as the printer specs, i.e., create a spot overprint color for the SpotUV, create a top layer for the SpotUV elements and duplicate or trace the object(s) one wants in SpotUV in this top layer and fill them with the SpotUV color. And export as a PDF/x-4. Many thanks and kudos to the wonderful Affinity Forums and members for help in this matter. Cheers – Timber Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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