3 Spot Color CD Face Starting with Photoshop Image

"The final file is being sent to a CD manufacturing press for silk screening that has a asked for a file in 3 pantone spot colors only."

Mark,
You do not specify what format the CD manufacturer is prepared to deal with; that is, what program they will be printing from. Assuming they will print directly from AICS:

I often hear people in this forum recommending duotones for this kind of thing. However, Photoshop's Duotone mode sends *the same* grayscale image to multiple separation plates (with optionally different tone curves). Usually, that's not what is needed, because in spot color work, one more commonly needs to send various elements of the design to different separations. Therefore, *different* images must be assigned to the various spot plates. Photoshop's Multichannel format is appropriate, not Duotone.

Basically, you put all the artwork for each spot color in its own spot color channel (not layer). Be sure you define the channels as spot channels. Asign the spot color desired to each channel. Photoshop lets you paint into a specific channel which is selected in the Channels Palette. Paint only with black and white. As long as all the other channels are visible, Photoshop will display the image as a color composite while you work. When done, Save As Photoshop DCS 2.eps. Use 8-bit RGB TIFF preview.

Place into AICS. You must use the Link option in the Place dialog. After placing, look at the Swatches Palette and verify the spot colors you defined in Photoshop are listed. Add the third spot color swatch, set your text using that color. Print seps directly from AI.

In my testing so far, although you should be able to save this file as a PDF and then have your recipient print seps from Acrobat 6; and although Acrobat lists the separation plates correctly; the file displays and separates incorrectly. Therefore, if your recipient does not have AICS from which to print the seps, an alternative is to "Print" a pre-separated PDF from AICS through Distiller, and send the pre-separated PDF to the recipient. They will then have a 3-page PDF; with one grayscale page per color. If their printing setup enables them to control the halftone ruling externally to the PDF, they can print the separated pages from Acrobat Reader. Otherwise, they're still going to need Acrobat 6 to control the halftone ruling in the print dialog.

So check with the vendor's specs and see if they are up-to-current with AICS. If they are, Send them the native AI file AND the linked image. (Of course, either convert the text to paths, or supply the fonts as well.) Otherwise, call them and clear up whether they have Acrobat 6 from which to print the seps, or if they are confident they can override the halftone ruling at the RIP level. If so, send them the pre-separated PDF.

All that said, though, since it sounds like you only need to add text in AI, why not just make the Multichannel Photoshop file contain all three spot colors and set the text there? If the screen shop knows what it's doing, it should be able to accept the properly built Multichannel image in native .ps format and use its own established workflow for getting from PS to whatever they use for printing the seps.

JET

Thanks for both answers, yes, they have AICS and the info you gave me has sent me in the right direction, technically I have the tools now....now back to the artistic stuff, the easy part, thanks again!
Mark