DCS File Not Saving All Spot Channels

[Cheryl_Lehman@adobeforums.com]

Help! I have a client who wanted to colorize a black and white drawing in order to print in spot colors...Now he wants to print in process because he'd like more colors than my press can provide. I've got black plus eight spot color channels at the moment, but when I save the document it only "remembers" the black and first four channels. A friend of mine told me a work around to save the document as a rasterized CMYK document, but if I can't get the original to recognize all the channels it's not going to do me much good. What is the problem here? Why is my DCS file only recognizing that the first five channels should be on (i.e. when I reopen the document it shows that the last four channels are turned off [not deleted])? I've searched through the Bible and a couple of other places, but I'm totally stumped. Any help would be greatly appreciated!!!

Cheryl-

[Ann_Shelbourne@adobeforums.com]

You need a DCS2 (Note that "2"!) rather than a plain-vanilla DCS.

If the channels still show in your channels palette, you can check them to make them visible.

[Cheryl_Lehman@adobeforums.com]

Ann,

I really appreciate your reply, but:

My document is a DCS 2. It still retains all the channels when I save it but when I reopen it the last four are off, which is causing problems when I try to do my work around to make it into a CMYK file because it's not seeing the channels which like to turn themselves off. Does that make any sense? Maybe there is an easier way for me to convert my DCS to a CMYK that I just don't know about. Currently I'm placing it in Quark, saving it as an EPS and then bringing it back into Photoshop to rasterize it--without the last four channel colors showing, unfortunately! Still needing help please!

Cheryl-

[Ann_Shelbourne@adobeforums.com]

Try this:
Leave Quark out of the equation for the moment. (Better still, leave Quark out of your life).

Open the DCS2 file in Photoshop and make all channels visible in the Channels palette (click to the left of the icon so that you see the "Eye").
Click on one of the spot color channels to select it and choose "Merge Spot Channel" from the palette's pop-out menu.
Repeat for each spot channel.
Save As to a new name (in case you ever need to get your spot colors back again).
Now Place in QXP -- or, preferably, in InDesign.

[Cheryl_Lehman@adobeforums.com]

Thank you for your continued help. I agree about Quark--I hate it, but unfortunately I have to work in it from time to time...

I finally figured out how to convert my file with much help from you! I had to do it a little differently than you had suggested because my file wouldn't let me merge more than one spot channel. I ended up making a new document, converting it to CMYK (it was formerly grayscale DCS), adjusting those four channels to match my original DCS as best as possible and then copying one by one the spot channels from the original to the new CMYK and then merging it. It was a little time consuming but accomplished the job beautifully. I kept my Photoshop document, made it a .tiff and placed it in my Illustrator artwork document (BBQ Sauce label) I really appreciate all of your help!

[Ann_Shelbourne@adobeforums.com]

So glad that you got it to work.