Category: mungenet

InDesign 2.0 and CS have extensive support for spot/special colours, including InDesign CS’s support for recomposing preseparated DCS format.

DCS was invented to permit applications such as Photoshop to create a pre-separated file and place into QuarkXpress. Quark then didn’t need much intelligence to output the separated file: it just passed each of the plates as an EPS in the page stream when generating film/plates.

In a world where composite PDF is the norm, this DCS workflow no longer fits. With simple CMYK work from Photoshop, placing elements and generating separations is simple. The graphic is still held as separate plates, but presents to the user as a composite image.

The problem arises, however, when attempting to take a CMYK+spot(s) file from Photoshop and attempt place into any application – including InDesign 2.0/CS. Ultimately, it would be great to be able to place a single file that contains bitmap and vector information, as well as holding transparency and spot colours. Presently, the only file format that supports this fully is DCS. Whilst you can create Illustrator 10 .ai or .pdf files containing CMYK bitmap and spot colour vector objects, Photoshop is still largely the tool of choice for creation of special effects.

Photoshop allows spot colour channels to be created, but the only supported output formats are EPS, DCS and Photoshop PDF. In all of these formats, any transparency is not retained.

Therefore, this technique (which has been used many times in production) may assist you in combining the power of Photoshop and extending its spot channel support, and the power of transparency in InDesign to assist us in creating a printable job.

The process:

The overview is: create two Photoshop PDF files, place them on top of each other in InDesign 2.0. The bottom-most file is a CMYK only Photoshop PDF, and the topper-most file is a Spot-only Photoshop PDF. This technique relies on the Transparency Flattener in InDesign 2.0 to weave its magic to generate a composite output.

Step 1: create the source graphic element in Photoshop. In this example, we have a masthead that contains a Bevel & Emboss Photoshop layer style. Our goal is to make the colour of the masthead a special colour. (in the realworld example, this was printed as a metallic silver colour). Don’t create the spot channel yet. Save it as a Photoshop PDF (retaining transparency, vector information and resulting in a compact file).

In this file, the text has a white (or knockout) colour. Its goal in life is to act like a “cookie cutter” and remove the ink from underlying elements at print time. The Bevel & Emboss effect is created using a Black ink, so it will still appear on the black plate at print time.

Step 2: Take the same Photoshop PDF file:

• Turn off any effects.
• Change the white/knockout colour to Black. Choose a % of black that equals the % of spot colour ink you would like. In this example, as the element is a vector text element, it is just filled with 100% Black.
• double check and ensure where you have black, you want the spot ink to appear
• Mode>Convert>Grayscale. The will convert the black elements to 100% Black.
• Mode>Convert>Duotone. This will then permit you to change the Black to a named spot channel. Thankfully in Photoshop 6 or 7, this will be clipped inside the vector text element.
• For Advanced Users: you can also use other Layer Styles in Photoshop to ‘feather off’ the spot ink to create a highlight effect.

Do not make any position changes to the file. Set the channel in the Duotone to the same spot ink you are going to use in InDesign. This can be “Ink Aliased” at output time.

Step 3: As you will notice, saving as an EPS or PDF – transparency is not retained in this process. Don’t panic, we’re going to fix this in InDesign.

So we have two files: one being the Composite CMYK object saved as a Photoshop PDF, and another saved as a Photoshop PDF containing a Spot colour. In both files, there is vector data ensuring high quality output. In this example, I am using the .PDP file extension: the data inside the Photoshop PDF file is exactly the same; all I have done is adjust the extension. This will enable InDesign to Edit Original into Photoshop automatically.

Step 4: Go to InDesign 2.0. Place the file saved in step 1.

Step 5: Place the file saved in step 3, positioning it exactly over the top of the file placed in step 4. Use the transform palette to get 100% placement accuracy. Don’t worry about the “white” (knockout) colour from the placed file.

Step 6: set the top object to 100% Multiply using Window>Transparency. Almost magically, the white colour is removed, yet the spot colour remains. Leaving this at 100% Multiply, at output time the spot colour is retained (not converted to process)

To make the printing process a little more difficult, here the layer which the two elements are placed onto have been moved behind the image.

Step 7: Export as PDF, or Print to the Acrobat Distiller. In this example, I printed using Composite CMYK. Its a little difficult to fathom; but spot colours are held in this process (unless you use InDesign 2.0/CS’s Ink Manager to convert them back to process at print time)

In the above screen dump, I am using Quite Revealing to show the background colour from the Composite PDF. As you can see, the first placed CMYK PDF ‘cuts out’ the colour in the background: in this instance, the PANTONE 264C Spot Colour.

This above screen dump shows the PANTONE 340 C as created in the second Photoshop file

Here is the black plate. The Bevel&Emboss added in the first Photoshop PDF is retained, and overprints the spot colour correctly.

How does this work?

The first file you place (CMYK) element acts like a ‘knockout’ element, removing any items underneath. The second file placed (EPS Spot) then overprints the underlying CMYK object. As InDesign’s flattener is smart, it does not knockout underlying elements. It also does not change their colour in the flattening as the top object is a spot colour. Other blend modes such as Lighten or Darken do attempt to change the colours – so the final document may be forced into CMYK.

What’s the Benefit?

What does this provide that DCS does not? The ability to generate a composite PDF. As soon as you place a DCS file into QuarkXpress, InDesign or PageMaker – you are forcing the output to be separations. In modern Postscript 3 or Extreme workflows, recombining preseparated output is difficult, and not the default workflow.

If you are in Australia, you may have seen the June 2002 issue of the Foxtel magazine. It used this technique. Supplied as a composite PDF with Spot colour, it correctly separated, was trapped and printed as a metallic. The Bevel & Emboss in the K plate overprinted the silver-metallic special colour. This plate is still a vector element.

Thanks to: Matt Phillips, Ben Hewitt (who tested this out on a live job!) and Alan Rosenfeld (for listening to my ranting about this in Brisbane). A big thankyou to Aaron Cliff from Foxtel magazine for sending a better quality image – and more importantly, being brave enough to pioneer this technique.

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Zettai

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Tim reads the menu. For breakfast.

After many years of yearning, Tim arrives at Killer Whale Museum

Tim meets Old Tom, Killer Whale Museum, Eden, NSW.

Storm over Eden

Tim, the MINI at Mullenderee Creek, NSW

Old Tom, Killer Whale Museum, Eden NSW. August 2004. Photo by Tim Cole

Old Tom full frontal, Killer Whale Museum, Eden NSW. August 2004. Photo by Tim Cole

Old Tom: jaw showing rope wear, Killer Whale Museum, Eden NSW. August 2004. Photo by Tim Cole

Storm Clouds. Photo by Tim Cole, South Coast NSW, August 2004

The longer source for this document can be found here: InDesign 2.0: Printing Output Choices and Flattener Tricks (including force Greyscale export!)

The Transparency Flattener is your colourspace conversion friend. If you take a placed EPS or PDF element that you are not sure is in a CMYK or RGB colourspace, by setting this placed element’s transparency to 99.9% [Normal], a colourspace conversion is undertaken at print time

Now when printing, this element is routed through the magic of the Transparency Flattener prior to output. It sees that your are printing “Composite CMYK” or “Composite RGB” and converts the output to that colourspace. The next question is “what happens, doesn’t this make it see through? Won’t it blend with the colours underneath?” Well, no. 0.1% is a VERY small percentage, and it rounds back to a full number (evidently, some stuff is represented as integers, so 0.1% of 255 is a 254.75, which rounds back up to 255)

You can also use this to force a document into Grayscale. Setting placed EPS/PDF elements with 99.9% transparency and printing Composite Gray results in a 100% Grayscale PDF [watch for spots!]. Good for Newsprint applications. Be warned; the grayscale colours chosen might not always be what you want at print time.

What about exporting EPS or PDF?

Yes, this same process applies.

EPS: you have a choice of CMYK, Gray or RGB. The flattener trick with 99.9% transparency works here too, as elements have to be flattened in the Postscript stream.

PDF: you have a choice of CMYK, RGB or Leave Unchanged. Again, the flattener is invoked where required.

What is the Difference Between InRIP Separations and Composite CMYK?

When printing InRIP separations you are printing Composite CMYK (as above), but InDesign adds some extra Postscript commands to the output device. This instructs the RIP to generate a page per colourant in the file. So, if there is spot colour in the document, it will be separated onto its own plate.

By the way, Acrobat Distiller 4 and 5 ignores this “separate” command, and you get a PDF from the Postscript that is the same as a Composite CMYK PDF. Except that InDesign gets a chance to apply “Application Built-in” trapping prior to creating the Postscript. (ref: InDesign Prepress: Generating Composite, Trapped PDFs)

Different RIPs have different settings for line screen ruling/angles — and in some cases override what the application outputs. Usually because “the application gets it wrong” according to prepress operators I speak to.

What is the Difference Between the two Transparency Blend Spaces?

When Flattening two objects at print time, you’ve got to do some mathematical stuff to determine how colours will mix together. The colourspace this is executed in may change the effective colour of the resulting flattened object. This is similar to the difference you see in Photoshop with some blend modes in RGB vs. CMYK. The recommendation is to set this to CMYK for printed output, and RGB when doing on-screen Acrobat 4.0 style PDFs. Acrobat 5.0 PDFs are not flattened at export time. You can also see a subtle change on screen in InDesign 2.0/CS.

No Name tags required

Driving familiar streets of Adelaide on Saturday; the names and the faces on buildings have changed – yet the roads still head in the same directions. Names are tags, that sometimes attempt to label, but are generally used to represent “things”, but they are not who we are nor indicate directions we choose in life.

At my first school reunion, name tags were mandatory even as we recognised faces, physical expressions and postures, voices and groupings. Old school nick names that once sounded edgy were now embarrasing and difficult to explain to non-old scholar partners – and the girls who chose to change their maiden names to unknown surnames have only changed in name; not dramatically in personality.

A reunion of this nature is unique life experience. Not one to be missed. It is surprising that it is rarely explored by art; and where nostalgia is thematic, it seems comical rather than cathartic.

It was difficult to tell: was Kevin Richardson, the current Headmaster of Immanuel College, joking when he said he “had checked around” on the class of 1985? I am sure the uncovered opinions of our group would have been mixed. The pride of this school, and any private school, is it facilities. These are paramount in attracting a steady stream of revenue – and they express the educational will of the teaching community. Kevin, coming from a technology background in teaching; seems to have swung Immanuel down the road of modern teaching techniques – a lesson my son’s techno-phobic school could learn.

In the tour of the school grounds, ably spruiked by Kevin with doors unlocked by the famous non-mirrored sunglassed Mr Dawes; one of the few members of administration staff we recognised with some mixed fondness; we all realised that the scale of the operation has changed. As has the method of delivery of classes from our day. Old school: Whiteboards were the mod-device in 1985. New school: 1024×768 LCD projectors. Chalk dust is as ancient as slate boards and wooden hinged desks. The number of vocational classes, and seemingly focus, out weighs the pure academic classes.

Our class of 1985 was sandwiched between the swot-heavy classes of 1983/4 and the active and engaged class of 1986. Our year was the class that experimented with the application of the Pareto principle as it came to high school education. For 80% of the class, 20% of the effort was applied to schoolwork. The other 80% of the time was spent in other activities which ultimately had a greater positive outcome on who they became.

The attendence rate directly reflected the class Pareto principle. Roughly 80% of the class turned up. For a minority, it was the first time they were drinking alcohol on school grounds in the shadow of the former boarding houses. Those who were not there were remembered in words and stories. Classic events, bustups, inadvertent animal sacrifice and pairings reanimated personalities. Many stories, left unsaid and untouched, remain in the collective experiences.

“So what have you been up to?”, when first asked, is a frightening question. Stupidly and strangely, I had not prepared a PR talk track and 15 second elevator pitch to intelligently answer this question; to achieve any formal goals of comparison. Mumbling some words; attempting not to be a bloke and focus only on the work and provide an element of family colour; yet knowing that this aspect provides the shapes that explains who you have evolved into.

Twenty years is a perfect interval to reconnect with old school acquaintances. There has been more “after school life” that outweighs the ackwardness of of the teenager that lives inside us all. Family, experiences, relationships, travel and raw maturity provides an ability to shroud the embarrassment with intruiging small talk to fill 6-7 hours.

Yes, Immanuel is the school that Lleyton Hewitt attended; the sheer number of tennis courts is probably the core reason he chose the school. Yes, this class sprouted a Miss Australia. restauranteurs, respected tradesmen, vegetable based protein manufacturers, standard grey-haired business-types, two PhDs and a bevy of dedicated mothers of largish broods. Success, if gauged only by an ability for self-support and an ability to not be a burden on others – has been kind to this class.

According to Dawkin’s, “The Selfish Gene”, the meaning of life is to re-spawn more life and perpetuate DNA. Therefore, the topic parenthood was usually an immediate question to assist in generating conversation. Many had braved three children; others speak of staying at home with their children, and working “0.8” weeks. Adelaide, in comparison to Sydney, is the perfect location for detuning from a pure career ladder of a economically fulfilling yet soul draining lifestyle.

Putting it scientifically, the desire to reproduce, partner and perpetuate DNA is a driver close to the surface of all teenagers. Another unspoken activity at reunions is the evalutation of our teenage crushes/hormones/pairings to determine if our mental wiring had chosen an appropriate potential mate. A few had made very appropriate choices of partners early. A surprising few were single.

Many of the class have started to spawn their own future students. There is a surprisingly large number of the group who have chosen to live in the Immanuel side of town, and send their children to the school. There is some business planner at the Immanuel that must model these figures with an eye to future revenue from old scholar parents. As a parent, it’s difficult enough to converse with your child’s teachers, let alone in send your children to a school you attended in your distant youth.

Another measurement of success is living up to the spark of potential first shown at school. I have always wondered if teachers can foretell the potential of the students in their class; and live in wonder of their results. Not enough teachers from our time arrived to ask this question and test the hypothesis.

Mr Volk, or should I say “Noel”, popped over to say hello. His first question is a question that will echo for some time: so are you a journalist or in IT? There was an air of inferiority on “IT”, or at least I wasn’t living up to a previously unforseen potential. Personally, I never viewed doing the school’s magazine as a journalistic job; nor as it as a path to future career success. English wasn’t a subject I felt passionately about to complete in Year 12/Matric, but it was a small moment of pride seeing people reading a 1985 Echo that contains your fingerprints. I sort of fell into the magazine job in an vain-glorious effort towards self-promotion. Everyone else on the team did the hard yards. That is why IT is the perfect home for me; standing on the shoulders of giants.

The age from 12 to 17 is difficult for all. Apart from the obvious physical changes, our worldview emerges yet it seems the fundamental nature of people is there to see. Look at a 16/17 year old, and you will see 80% of their future self. Yes, there are many experiences and more education to come – but the adult they are to become is just there. There are more than just shadows and echoes of their school self in the adults I met.

This class reunion, for me, was more than a mechanism for measuring our personal life choices against our peers – it was a good cathartic mechanism for extinguishing regret. Rather than dwelling on the past, it permits us to refind old friends and let the intervening years of disconnect fall away. These are classic pure friends that are untainted by the mud of a working relationship and the shared age group of our collective children.

If anything was to be learnt from this weekend’s experience, is that I will become a better parent of a teenager – and see the future potential in the sparks of the next few years; the mirror of others and the memories of life blurred by time has been cleared a little – and I am able to lay a collection of personal mnenomic demons to rest.

InDesign 2.0 Prepress Tips & Techniques

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partners.adobe.com: CS Printing Guides

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Nick Hodge: Videos of the InDesign 2.0 Roadshow, Feb 2002

from the Future of Publishing Roadshow

Breakfast at 7:00am, Stanley Street, Sydney CBD

Breakfast Briefing at 8:00am, Stanley Street, Sydney

Breakfast at 8:00am, Stanley Street, Sydney

MacDonalds carpark, after Tom Uglys Bridge Photo

MINIs in mirror, on way to Bald Hill Lookout, Stanwell Tops

Boo checks directions due to road closure, on way to Stanwell Tops

25 MINIs arrive at at Bald Hill Lookout, Stanwell Tops

MINIs parked at Jamberoo Recreation Park

MINI Photo Opportunity

Long Line of MINIs leaving for Lunch

Lunch at Briars. Finally!

Nicks MINI Weekend

Hodge Family MINI Weekend

From the DV footage of 18th May run. Frame grab by Photoshop Elements 2.0!

MINI May 18th Drive Day

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