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Photoshop / Onyx White spot colour How to?

C

Chasez

New Member
First, Not sure if this post should be in this thread or in the RIP threat, Fred feel free to move.

I've got a supplied .TIFF file from a client that has a white fade to the top (in attached) to clear
attachment.php
attachment.php


and I'm having issue's getting the white fade to print. The white fade is on its own separate layer, I have followed the instructions on the Onyx white paper for "Designing with white specialty ink" in creating the white as an alpha channel which I have done and I can get it to print white, but it prints a solid white and not the fade.

My question is how do I get it to print the fade using photoshop (I have no issues getting the white spot channels to print properly in illy)?

Using Onyx 10.2.5, Epson S50-670, printing on avery etchmark. If I missed any other info. that would help let me know.

Thanks all,

Chaz
 

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Zendavor Signs

Zendavor Signs

Mmmmm....signs
You can print halftones and gradients with white ink, but the spot channel mask needs to reflect that. If your mask is a solid color, you will print solid white. You need to gradiate your mask just like the white gradient.
 
C

Chasez

New Member
Zendavor Signs said:
You can print halftones and gradients with white ink, but the spot channel mask needs to reflect that. If your mask is a solid color, you will print solid white. You need to gradiate your mask just like the white gradient.
Click to expand...

Correct me if I'm wrong, but is this not what it shows when I have the alpha channel view selected (on)?
attachment.php
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It shows the alpha channel going from solid (at the mountains) and fading up to the top.

To get this, I selected the portion of the fade (above mountains and up) with the magic wand tool so that it was selected, reversed the selection (to get the correct portion according to Onyx white paper - black dictates data), then went to the channels menu and then saved the selection as a channel.

If I'm doing something wrong, please steer me in the right direction.

Thanks,

Chaz
 

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Zendavor Signs

Zendavor Signs

Mmmmm....signs
How does it look in Onyx Preflight? Is the gradient in the Spot layer there?
If the gradient is there, then the issue is with your profile.
If it is not there, then something is wrong with the Photoshop file setup.
 
C

Chasez

New Member
Zendavor Signs said:
How does it look in Onyx Preflight? Is the gradient in the Spot layer there?
If the gradient is there, then the issue is with your profile.
If it is not there, then something is wrong with the Photoshop file setup.
Click to expand...

Just checked the preflight and it's a solid color for the spot. If it's in the file then I'm stumped and not exactly sure where to start at looking to figure it out. I have followed the white paper but must be missing something.

Any chance I could send the file and you could take a quick look, maybe point me in the right direction on getting it setup in photoshop?

Chaz
 
C

Chasez

New Member
Pat White said:
I know it would just be a workaround fix, but couldn't you just set it up in Illustrator?
Click to expand...

Tried that, but when I open in illy the gradient layer isn't editable. I can try and recreate the gradient and match it as close as I can but I can't just assign the spot colour to the gradient layer and go from there. Part of the reason I was trying to do it in photoshop.

Chaz
 
Zendavor Signs

Zendavor Signs

Mmmmm....signs
Chasez said:
Tried that, but when I open in illy the gradient layer isn't editable. I can try and recreate the gradient and match it as close as I can but I can't just assign the spot colour to the gradient layer and go from there. Part of the reason I was trying to do it in photoshop.

Chaz
Click to expand...

I got your file. Save it as a PSD type file. That fixed it for me.
 
C

Chasez

New Member
Zendavor Signs said:
I got your file. Save it as a PSD type file. That fixed it for me.
Click to expand...

It's weird, so I saved the file as a .PSD and opened it in preflight and I'm showing the gradient now, but it's the wrong way (solid at the top fading to clear at the mountains - supposed to be solid at the mountains and fade to clear at the top). I have reversed the selection in the alpha channel and created a new channel (deleted the other) and it is still showing the incorrect way. Did it show this way for you?

attachment.php


No matter what I've tried, I can't get it to switch around so that the spot is solid against the mountain and fades to clear at the top.

Chaz
 

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Zendavor Signs

Zendavor Signs

Mmmmm....signs
Chasez said:
It's weird, so I saved the file as a .PSD and opened it in preflight and I'm showing the gradient now, but it's the wrong way (solid at the top fading to clear at the mountains - supposed to be solid at the mountains and fade to clear at the top). I have reversed the selection in the alpha channel and created a new channel (deleted the other) and it is still showing the incorrect way. Did it show this way for you?

attachment.php


No matter what I've tried, I can't get it to switch around so that the spot is solid against the mountain and fades to clear at the top.

Chaz
Click to expand...

I'm not at work now, but I believe that is what I got too. I didn't notice it wrong at the time. Maybe something in the file is corrupt. Try copying the layers into a new file.
 
C

Chasez

New Member
Zendavor Signs said:
I'm not at work now, but I believe that is what I got too. I didn't notice it wrong at the time. Maybe something in the file is corrupt. Try copying the layers into a new file.
Click to expand...

Tried to copy the layers out to another file... won't let me copy/paste them at all, even tried to click and drag into a new file and still not. I opened the original file and tried and still nothing as I thought maybe it had to do with something I had done when I enlarged it. Working on the original file I tried to create the alpha channel again and take it to preflight (saved as .PSD) and still having it show up incorrectly.. Thinking it may be time to contact onyx unfortunately. Thanks for all your help!

Chaz
 
C

Chasez

New Member
Ok, got it figured out after speaking with Onyx Tech for anyone else who may run into this problem.

The Image had been flattened and that's why the gradient wasn't showing correctly. The alpha channel was created correctly (black shows spot color data) but when it shows solid it is not correct, if it shows correctly then you will see the black data as a gradient.

What I had to do was get my selection of the upper portion (sky) where the fade/gradient is, invert the selection and save the selection as a channel, then invert my selection back to the sky portion and take the gradient tool and create a new gradient on the alpha channel. This gives the channel data the gradient.

Hope my rambling makes sense to anyone else who runs into this issue.

attachment.php


This now shows the spot colour correctly in preflight. Also the .PSD is not a compatible Onyx filetype (not sure why it showed in preflight before) but had to revert back to .TIFF.

Chaz
 

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C

Chasez

New Member
Pat White said:
Glad you got it sorted out Chaz.

Today I'm battling my own white gradient demons lol... :frustrated:
Click to expand...

I'm right there with you Pat, got another job coming that I'm producing samples for of a 54" high white gradient starting %100 white in the middle and fading out to %0 at the top and bottom. My issue is I keep running into the banding... damn that white! haha

Chaz
 
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