help! what happened to the spot channels?

[jln32]

hello forum!

am creating spot channels for a project that has already been built as simple layers (I went into the Channels palette, clicked on the arrow for "new spot channel", went back into the layer and ctrl+click, then back to the spot channel and filled the channel with black). I have about 20 spot channels so far, but all of a sudden, the option to create more will not highlight as an option!! Did I hit a button by accident or does PS allow only a certain # of spot channels (which would seem weird).

thanks for any help!

[LenHewitt]

You should never need more than 6 spot channels at the absolute maximum. As
each spot channel will create an individual separation, it would make
printing prohibitively expensive, requiring multiple press runs with
clean-down and ink changes between runs.

If you are creating 20 spot channels, it suggests that you have not fully
understood the purpose of them....Perhaps you would like to explain why you
need this number?

[Colin Walls]

Sorry, you seem to have missed the point of spot channels. If you are using CMYK, then spot channels are not relevant.

You should be able to give your printer a PS file from the PC for him to use on a Mac. Might be better to provide a PDF.

Maybe you need to do a little reading ...

[LenHewitt]

As Colin says, if you are having the job printed as a 4-colour process job,
then you shouldn't have any spot channels at all...

It sounds as all you need are type layers.....

However, for text-intensive jobs Photoshop is really NOT the ideal
application to use at all - it sounds as though you would be much better off
using either Illustrator or a page make-up app such as InDesign