ADOBE INDESIGN WINDOWS 37 CREATING A WHITE BASECOAT SEPARATION
From: jason@no-spam
Subject: Creating a 'white' basecoat separation
Date: Fri, 2 Apr 2004 05:01:20 -0800


I know a similar thread to this existed, and is now in the archive (varnish layers), but I'm having difficulty with this scenario:


Artwork for a CD on body, which has various graphic and text elements.
The graphics are not 'filled to frame' and therefore consist of irregular shapes with transparent backgrounds.


Because of the silver reflective surface, I need to create a spot plate of pure solid white, on which the other inks will be overprinted.


However, while in Photoshop, it's just a case of shift-selecting all layers, copying merged layers, and pasting into a new channel.......


... Dare I ask how to do this in Indesign?

PS: I've googled, searched through the manual, forums, etc etc.... but couldn't find a suitable solution. Someone must know how to do this.


Cheers,

J.










From: Robert_Levine@no-spam
Subject: Re: Creating a 'white' basecoat separation
Date: Fri, 2 Apr 2004 05:35:38 -0800

If I understand what you're looking to do, you'll have to draw it using the pen tool. Place it under your graphic and then set the graphic to overprint.

Bob

From: jason@no-spam
Subject: Re: Creating a 'white' basecoat separation
Date: Fri, 2 Apr 2004 05:42:13 -0800

I was REALLY hoping you wouldn't say that Bob... :(
I think you do understand what I'm trying to do... but I was hoping there would be a much simpler way to "merge all visible" and then just specify a flat colour...


Oh well.. When the customer asks me if there's a chance of any white being seen, I'll have to say "with my hands, more than likely".


Cheers Bob.

J.


From: Robert_Levine@no-spam
Subject: Re: Creating a 'white' basecoat separation
Date: Fri, 2 Apr 2004 05:46:30 -0800

Why not just do it in Photoshop then?

Bob

From: jason@no-spam
Subject: Re: Creating a 'white' basecoat separation
Date: Fri, 2 Apr 2004 06:02:45 -0800

I did once, but found that even when supplying the printer with artwork at 300 dpi, the text was heavily rasterised, and very badly screened (85 lines per inch).


When I redid the artwork in Illustrator / Indesign, everything was much smoother.... so it put me off using Photoshop for anything except offset litho printing.


J

From: Robert_Levine@no-spam
Subject: Re: Creating a 'white' basecoat separation
Date: Fri, 2 Apr 2004 06:16:38 -0800

I thought you were using a raster graphic. If not, why not use Illustrator for this?

Or if you want, stick to Photoshop and save as PDF?

Bob

From: jason@no-spam
Subject: Re: Creating a 'white' basecoat separation
Date: Fri, 2 Apr 2004 06:24:50 -0800

There IS a raster graphic - a halftone pattern gradient.
Their corporate logo was created in Illustrator (which I could quite easily create a spot layer for that I guess), but the other graphics are.... (and I've just answered my own question here)... created in Indesign, so yes, I could duplicate those to a new layer and apply spot colour....


* sigh*

Thanks for jigging my brain back into shape Bob.

Still - it would be nice if it could be done entirely in Indesign... ;-)


From: Jay_Chevako@no-spam
Subject: Re: Creating a 'white' basecoat separation
Date: Fri, 2 Apr 2004 12:11:00 -0800

Try this, export to eps, or pdf and open that in photoshop, convert to grayscale, and use a very sharp curve to get solid black save as tiff, place in indesign and colorize to your spot white, position it exactly in the right spot (the hard part).
Jay

From: jason@no-spam
Subject: Re: Creating a 'white' basecoat separation
Date: Fri, 2 Apr 2004 23:18:42 -0800

That's another possible solution Jay, thanks..

J.