ONYX TUTORIALS | 08/15/2013 ONYX Tutorials: Guide to Designing with Specialty Ink in Adobe Illustrator Introduction This tutorial will cover the basics of designing with specialty ink, such as white or silver and preparing it to print through your ONYX RIP software.Adobe Illustrator will be the focus of this document. The same basic principles of spot colors, layer orders and overprint will be the same for other vector design applications. The tools and methods used will also be different. The end result will be the same. We will take the image (left) and apply a solid fill with a 0.25 inch bleed (right). The final result we will see in this example is a solid fill with a 0.25 inch bleed around the shape of the image. About Spot Colors The ONYX software uses spot colors in vector files to determine where a specialty ink channel will be printed. By default the ONYX software looks for Spot1, Spot2, etc. If a different name is used additional steps in the ONYX software will be needed. This will be explained later on. Step 1 - Create a Spot Color We start by clicking on the New Swatch button. The spot color name will be Spot1. The Color Type is changed to Spot Color. We will select a green color to represent the spot color. It is always helpful to define the color that is not present in the image. This makes it easier to dif- ferentiate between the image and the spot color. Step 2 - Defining Specialty Ink Step 1: Create spot color Next we need to define where the specialty ink should be printed. In this example we want it shaped like the image, but with 0.25 inch bleed. First we will copy the body shape and the talking bubble. Use Pathfinder’s Unite option to make a compound path. Finally remove any stroke color and change the fill color to Spot1. We will expand the shape. Click on the Object menu and choose Path. Click on Offset Path. Set the offset to 0.25 inches. The expanded path is placed underneath our original shape. Select the original and click Delete. Finally place this expanded path over the image. Step 2: Defining Specialty Ink - Compound Path onyxgfx.com Step 3 - Overprint Now all that can be seen is our green specialty ink object. We need to enable overprint. Go to the Window menu and click on Attributes. Highlight the specialty ink object and click Overprint Fill on the Attributes window. After enabling Overprint Fill, the green object is still hiding the artwork. Click on View and Overprint Preview to get a view similar to the image on the right. It does not make any difference if Overprint View is on or not. It is simply a way to see both the artwork and the specialty ink object. The view will vary based on the color used to define Spot1. Step 3: Image with overprint enabled and Overprint View Step 4 - Layer Ordering The specialty ink objects should always be moved to the top of the layer or object order. This is independent of how the specialty ink and the image data will be printed. The print- ing order is determined with the ONYX media profile or on the printer. Step 5 - Creating an Output File Step 4: Layer order showing Spot1 object above artwork After the design is complete we can save the file out as either a PDF or EPS file. Loading the File into the ONYX Software With the spot color named Spot1 all we have to do is load the file into the ONYX software. The spot color will be automatically assigned to the specialty ink channel. Spot Color Not Named Spot1 How does ONYX assign a spot color to a specialty ink channel if the name is not Spot1? ONYX needs to be told the name of the spot color to use. This can be done in the Quick Set for easy automation or in Job Editor. In the Color Management section click on Change Profiles. Now select the Output tab and click on Spot Channel Replacement. In this new window there are two section. In PDF/ PostScript Spot Color to Spot Ink Channel Replacement click on the first<None> next to Spot1. Type in the name of the spot color and click OK. Spot Channel Replacement is available in ProductionHouse and Thrive only. Spot Channel Replacement Printing Layer Order Configuring the print layers will vary based on the printer used. In this example we will set the layer to print underflood. This will print the specialty ink first and then the image. Additional Resources Designing with White and Specialty Ink (White Paper) - More detail in designing for both Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Illustrator. Profiling with Specialty Ink Quick Start Guide - Explains how to get a media setup to profile with specialty ink such as white or silver. This does not cover all aspects of profiling. These documents are availabe at www.onyxgfx.com. onyxgfx.com.