Spot colors on gradients

[MajesticFlame]

Gradients don't honor spot colors on pdf export.

If I create a gradient with spot colors and output to pdf the gradient will be CMYK even if I select to honor spot colors.

I was able to get around this by doing a solid color on the bottom, copying the object and pasting it on top, applying the secondary color with a transparency. Seems like a lot of extra work. I've attached a sample file. The top box is done with the gradient tool and the bottom one with my work around.

SpotTest.pdf

[PaulEC]

Some versions of PDF only support CMYK, so check the version that you're using.

[MajesticFlame]

7 minutes ago, PaulEC said:

Some versions of PDF only support CMYK, so check the version that you're using.

If you check out the pdf you'll see that the box I did at the bottom is spot colors. (If you have a viewer that shows separations anyway) It's only the one I created with the gradient tool that is CMYK.

[thomaso]

18 minutes ago, MajesticFlame said:

Gradients don't honor spot colors on pdf export.

(...) I was able to get around this by doing a solid color on the bottom, copying the object and pasting it on top, applying the secondary color with a transparency.

Smart workaround! – Unfortunately gradient swatches are not allowed as global swatches – whereas spot color swatches have to be global. Possibly this leads to the unexpected limitation for spot colors in gradients on export in AfPub.

 

11 minutes ago, PaulEC said:

Some versions of PDF only support CMYK, so check the version that you're using.

Hm? – Even PDF/X-1a (PDF 1.3) does support spot colors.

[Old Bruce]

I am perhaps missing the obvious here but I have seen this sort of question asked before and I honestly don't understand what the expectation is regarding the output. Is the expectation that the output will be two spot colour plates for the gradient instead of the four CMYK plates?

[thomaso]

37 minutes ago, Old Bruce said:

I honestly don't understand what the expectation is regarding the output.

I see the expected – though, as MajesticFlame wrote, just simulated with transparency * workaround – result in the lower rectangle of his initially attached PDF.
Or, short: "Spot color on gradients", as the topic says. – What in detail makes you doubt?

* which would not meet all PDF versions, as PaulEC might have meant to point out.

[Old Bruce]

No 'doubt'. I do not know what he wants, Two Printing Plates (the spot colours) opposed to Four Printing Plates(C,M,Y and K).

I am left guessing he is trying to save on setup and ink costs.

Or is he trying to use Spot Colours for some reason I don't understand.

[thomaso]

12 minutes ago, Old Bruce said:

I am left guessing he is trying to save on setup and ink costs.

Not costs only. He could want a 2-color print with inks that don't exist in CMYK.

[MajesticFlame]

Where I work currently we mostly use CMYK but in my past job we used spot colors all the time. I was just testing out how Publisher did with spot colors, haven't been using it much for actual production work yet.

14 hours ago, thomaso said:

Not costs only. He could want a 2-color print with inks that don't exist in CMYK.

At my past job we printed a lot of 2 color jobs with colors that would be hard or impossible to accurately print in CMYK.

[Old Bruce]

Thanks for the clarification MajesticFlame.

An aside: I never understood why clients wanted spot colours until one of them took the time to explain it to me. "Approximate is not good enough."

[Jon P]

Hi MajesticFlame,

This is an issue we are currently aware of, I've given it a nudge

Thanks

 

[Dave Harris]

It's a limitation we're aware of. We can do gradients with tints of the same spot, or between the spot and white, but not between two different spots.