Help! ... with DCS eps greyscale image + 1 spot

[molly_mccoubrey@adobeforums.com]

Help.... my greyscale image with 1 spot channel is only showing up as a greyscale. The spot channel is being ignored. Why?

I'm running Mac OS 9.2.2 and Photoshop 5.5

Here's what I've done.

1. My photoshop file has a background set to white.

2. The next (single) layer above shows a guy with the shirt cleared (the section where the shirt would be has been cleared so that you see the white background). The rest of this layer is also transparent. So that all that's on this layer is a floating head, pants and shoes.

3. The channels palette has 2 channels ( 1 black channel and 1 pantone 362 channel)

4. The black channel has the guy's head, shirt and shoes.

5. The Pantone 362 channel has the guy's shirt.

6. What's strange is that I can see the greyscale guy with a pantone 362 shirt when both channels are on.

7. However, when I save the file as DCS eps, the resulting file shows the guy without a pantone 362 shirt. So the area where the Pantone 362 shirt should be, is white.

8. What am I doing wrong?

Any help with this issue would be greatly appreciated.

:)
Molly.

[Buko@adobeforums.com]

DCS2

[molly_mccoubrey@adobeforums.com]

Sorry.......... I forgot to specify that I am using DCS 2

Do you have any other ideas?

[Ann_Shelbourne@adobeforums.com]

Did you save it as a DCS2, with the spot color box checked; and as a single file with color composite and a Tiff preview?

[molly_mccoubrey@adobeforums.com]

Hi Ann,

Yes, I tried it again with your settings suggestions, and file still comes into Quark 5 with just greyscale, no Pantone 362 shirt.

:( Thanks though.

It's frustrating because I can SEE what I want in the photoshop file, but it's not saving that way.

[Ann_Shelbourne@adobeforums.com]

You are sure that you have a Spot-color Channel rather than just an Alpha channel?

See if it works with QXP 4.1.1. (I understand QXP 5 was a bear!)

A much better way of doing this would be to make a Photoshop PDF and place it in InDesign.

[molly_mccoubrey@adobeforums.com]

Hi Ann,

I made sure it was a spot channel. Even redid it just to make sure. Still same results, greyscale image with no pantone 362 shirt.

Unfortunately we only have Quark 5, no 4, and we aren't at InDesign yet........ would love it though.

Is it of concern that the only image information for the shirt is located in the spot channel?

[Tim_Lookingbill@adobeforums.com]

Just wondering, aren't there any preview settings in Quark that have to be set? Not sure, don't have Quark.

[Ann_Shelbourne@adobeforums.com]

The image information for the shirt is located has to be only in the spot channel if you want it to print in red.

Make sure that when you Save As a DCS2 that "encoding" is ASCII or Binary and not JPEG.

I have never used QXP 5 or 6 but I can't think of anything else that you should do.

Is there any info. in the QXP Help menu -- if it has one?

[molly_mccoubrey@adobeforums.com]

Good ideas everyone! Thanks so much for the help.

I got it working by playing around some more with the photoshop settings.

1. Choose File/Save a copy
2. Select DCS 2
3. Make sure the "Flatten Image", "Exclude Alpha Channels" and "Exclude Non-image Data" are ALL unselected.
4. Preview as Macintosh Jpeg
5. Choose DCS: Single File with Color Composite @ 72 ppi
6. Encoding should be Jpeg Max
7. Select both "Include Halftone" and "Include Transfer Function"

I'm still not exactly sure where I went wrong, but I'm keeping these settings in a safe place.

Many thanks again! Especially you Ann!
:)
Molly.

[Ann_Shelbourne@adobeforums.com]

Except for your #6 and #7!

Use encoding of Binary or ASCII.
You shouldn't be including Halftone and Transfer Function.

[molly_mccoubrey@adobeforums.com]

Hi Ann,

Why those settings?

:)
Molly.

[Ann_Shelbourne@adobeforums.com]

Because you don't normally want halftone and transfer functions (which you may have set-up for your personal printing device) to over-ride the RIP.

Binary files RIP faster on PostScript devices then ASCII and you don't risk any JPEG compression artifacts.

Also, I believe that some RIPS can't handle the JPEG encoding.

[molly_mccoubrey@adobeforums.com]

Very interesting!

Thanks again, Ann. It always helps to know the whys behind the multitude of selections we're given when saving something like this.

:)
Molly.