Topic awaiting preservation: Can I make a halftone float in PageMaker? (Page 1 of 1)

I want to create a single pass, 2 color job, but I want the base color to be a specific Pantone color, with text as a knock-out, and float a transparent halftone, (i.e., white area's are transparent, black aren't), over the color. The effect should be that of a duo-tone picture, but I can't seem to get the damm transparency to export in PhotoShop! Every time I do it, the white area's block out the Pantone color, and I can't Copy/Paste at 300 dpi, because the clipboard memory is WAY to small.

Anyone have some suggestions here?

(BTW, print is not my normal venue)

Yeah, make the spot and black channel in Photoshop using spot channels...Just make sure that the pantone names are exactly the same in the ps file and in quark...When it seperates, the spots will print on the same plate....And your black will overprint the PMS...
*still need to make a tutorial for GNetwork on spot channels*
Post back if you need more info on spot channels...It sounds like your job will be relatively painless though

Spot channels! Now that I think of it, I suppose there had to be such a thing, but for some reason it never occurred to me. Thanks, Jeni! Every few days I learn something new about Photoshop...

You know what's funny? I was JUST thinking of that when I went to bed, but when I called my friend in the morning, she says she's done that, and it doesn't print right, but she'll try again. Theoreticaly, (and she is still, unfortunately, using PageMaker instead of Quark), your totally right, the program should recognize that both colors are the same Pantone, and seperate them for the various plates accordingly, But, again, this is not my regular venue, so I don't actually know what her plate printer is doing. I don't even know if it's trying to implement some antiquated form of trapping that is screwing up the different layers. The only plate processor I have used is a Scitex, and I think the one her company uses is a Kodak.

Oh well, thanks for your help. If for nothing else than reassurance that it SHOULD work this way, and to try harder!

Nope, whoops, need some more help:

So, this spot color thing: How do get Photoshop to export the image with JUST the black halftone, and the spot PMS? (color is Coated Pantone 2726). If I keep it in RGB mode or CMYK, PageMaker doesn't recognize the interanl colors, and I think they got all screwed up, because maybe Photoshop didn't maintain the two colors when I exported as a Photoshop EPS? On my comp print, it looked like there was purple in there?!? If I switch the thing to Duotone, I have to start with a grayscale image, and then I've lost the effect I'm going for.

How can I tell Photoshop to ONLY export the two colors that are in the document, and somehow make sure that PageMaker recognizes them on import?

Ok. I am happy to say that your friend is mistaken. Maybe she's doing something wrong or maybe the RIP is antiquated. We print the method I described above on a regular basis with no problem.

Ok...You have your greyscale image or your cmyk with just black...whatever....you make a spot channel and fill it with 100%...I didn't catch whether you wanted the black to actually overprint the spot...but regardless...Flatten the image. Save as>DCS 2.0>Single file composite (whether or not you choose to include a 72 dpi color preview is up to you. We don't. We just make our own fpo). Place in quark or pagemaker or illustrator. No problem. If you are dealing with an antiquated RIP, there is a way around it...Just fill your Magenta or Cyan or Yellow channel with 100% and then in your quark doc, do the same and when they go to print the actual plate, just have them use the ink you want.
Does that help?

Edit> Oh yeah, to make your own FPO that prints nicely on a laser, just Click on the pantone channel and pick "merge spot channel" from the flyout menu...save as an eps or tif for the fpo. That'll give you a good idea how things will look if you have a good laserprinter.

Note: When dealing with spot channels, its best to set the opacity of the channel (done by double clicking on it) to 0%, all this does is show you everything it's overlapping. Otherwise the channel appears opaque on screen (which is no indicator of how it will look when printed).


[This message has been edited by Jeni (edited 02-20-2002).]

Okay, thanks. I'll see what happens!