Spot Separations identify the tonal values of different colours and has the ability to control which colours are included in the separation and which are not. Some other separation methods do not differentiate between colour and tone.
Spot Separations allow us to pick a colour to separate and then pick other colours to subtract from the separation at the same time. Unlike the other separation methods, you do not create any layers initially when separating with Spot and you only separate one colour at a time.
Surfaces
- Go to Separate Menu > Spot. The Spot Window will open.
- Make sure the popup menu in the top left hand corner says Spot.
- Use the Pipette Tool to tick a colour from the design and press the New button in the Spot Window to add the colour to it. A colour block will appear in the selected colour in the middle of the window and a Gamma Window will appear on the right.
- Click on the Preview and Tonal buttons and your design will show a grey scale representation of the chosen colour and its tones in the Design Window. Click the Show check box on and off to make the selected colour visible or invisible in the preview.
The Mode option decides whether the colour is added to or subtracted from the separation. Click on the + symbol and it will change to a – and vice versa.
The Depth setting determines whether the colour will be separated as a solid or tonal layer. Click on the gradient symbol and it will change to black and white and vice versa. - Manipulate the gamma in the same way as a normal gamma curve, to add to or remove areas from the separation (hide the Gamma Window once you have finished editing it if you have little available screen space, by clicking on the button to the left of the gamma at the top of the window).
- Turn off the Preview and using the Pipette Tool, pick an unwanted colour from the design and click New in the Spot Window to add it as a second colour.
- Click on the unwanted colours‘ + button to change it to a - symbol and switch the Preview back on. This will subtract the tones of the unwanted colour from the separation. Notice that when you click on either of the colours in the Spot Window, the Gamma Window changes to show the selected colour and gamma settings. This is so you have more control over the individual parts of the separation and you are able to add or take away different amounts of each colour. If at any stage you wish to change the order of colours in the Spot Window, simply click on the colour and drag it to a different position in the list.
- Manipulate the gamma curve for both colours until you see what you want in the preview.
Note: Note: When you are changing the gamma on a subtracted colour, the gamma works in reverse, i.e. if you want to take more of the subtracted colour away, push the gamma curve upwards. If you want to add more of the subtracted colour back into the separation, pull the gamma curve down.
Multiple colours can be added to the Spot Window at the same time to affect the separation. By changing the characteristics of the colours in the window, the effect of the separation can be changed. Colours can be added, subtracted, made solid or tonal, all within the same separation.
When you are happy with the preview of the separation, click on the Fix button to finalise the layer.
The Movie
Textiles
- Go to Separate Menu > Spot. The Spot Window will open.
- Make sure the popup menu in the top left hand corner says Spot.
- Use the Pipette Tool to tick a colour from the design and press the New button in the Spot Window to add the colour to it. A colour block will appear in the selected colour in the middle of the window and a Gamma Window will appear on the right.
- Click on the Preview and Tonal buttons and your design will show a grey scale representation of the chosen colour and its tones in the Design Window. Click the Show check box on and off to make the selected colour visible or invisible in the preview.
The Mode option decides whether the colour is added to or subtracted from the separation. Click on the + symbol and it will change to a – and vice versa.
The Depth setting determines whether the colour will be separated as a solid or tonal layer. Click on the gradient symbol and it will change to black and white and vice versa. - Manipulate the gamma in the same way as a normal gamma curve, to add to or remove areas from the separation (hide the Gamma Window once you have finished editing it if you have little available screen space, by clicking on the button to the left of the gamma at the top of the window).
- Turn off the Preview and using the Pipette Tool, pick an unwanted colour from the design and click New in the Spot Window to add it as a second colour.
- Click on the unwanted colours‘ + button to change it to a - symbol and switch the Preview back on. This will subtract the tones of the unwanted colour from the separation. Notice that when you click on either of the colours in the Spot Window, the Gamma Window changes to show the selected colour and gamma settings. This is so you have more control over the individual parts of the separation and you are able to add or take away different amounts of each colour. If at any stage you wish to change the order of colours in the Spot Window, simply click on the colour and drag it to a different position in the list.
- Manipulate the gamma curve for both colours until you see what you want in the preview.
Note: Note: When you are changing the gamma on a subtracted colour, the gamma works in reverse, i.e. if you want to take more of the subtracted colour away, push the gamma curve upwards. If you want to add more of the subtracted colour back into the separation, pull the gamma curve down.
Multiple colours can be added to the Spot Window at the same time to affect the separation. By changing the characteristics of the colours in the window, the effect of the separation can be changed. Colours can be added, subtracted, made solid or tonal, all within the same separation.
When you are happy with the preview of the separation, click on the Fix button to finalise the layer.
The Movie
Wallcoverings
- Go to Separate Menu > Spot. The Spot Window will open.
- Make sure the popup menu in the top left hand corner says Spot.
- Use the Pipette Tool to tick a colour from the design and press the New button in the Spot Window to add the colour to it. A colour block will appear in the selected colour in the middle of the window and a Gamma Window will appear on the right.
- Click on the Preview and Tonal buttons and your design will show a grey scale representation of the chosen colour and its tones in the Design Window. Click the Show check box on and off to make the selected colour visible or invisible in the preview.
The Mode option decides whether the colour is added to or subtracted from the separation. Click on the + symbol and it will change to a – and vice versa.
The Depth setting determines whether the colour will be separated as a solid or tonal layer. Click on the gradient symbol and it will change to black and white and vice versa. - Manipulate the gamma in the same way as a normal gamma curve, to add to or remove areas from the separation (hide the Gamma Window once you have finished editing it if you have little available screen space, by clicking on the button to the left of the gamma at the top of the window).
- Turn off the Preview and using the Pipette Tool, pick an unwanted colour from the design and click New in the Spot Window to add it as a second colour.
- Click on the unwanted colours‘ + button to change it to a - symbol and switch the Preview back on. This will subtract the tones of the unwanted colour from the separation. Notice that when you click on either of the colours in the Spot Window, the Gamma Window changes to show the selected colour and gamma settings. This is so you have more control over the individual parts of the separation and you are able to add or take away different amounts of each colour. If at any stage you wish to change the order of colours in the Spot Window, simply click on the colour and drag it to a different position in the list.
- Manipulate the gamma curve for both colours until you see what you want in the preview.
Note: Note: When you are changing the gamma on a subtracted colour, the gamma works in reverse, i.e. if you want to take more of the subtracted colour away, push the gamma curve upwards. If you want to add more of the subtracted colour back into the separation, pull the gamma curve down.
Multiple colours can be added to the Spot Window at the same time to affect the separation. By changing the characteristics of the colours in the window, the effect of the separation can be changed. Colours can be added, subtracted, made solid or tonal, all within the same separation.
When you are happy with the preview of the separation, click on the Fix button to finalise the layer.
The Movie
Understanding the buttons in the Spot Window
Black and White or Tonal mode
As we have already seen, each colour in the Spot Window can be made tonal or black and white by changing the Depth setting for each individual colour. The Tonal check box on the far left of the window however, changes the overall result of the whole separation between tonal and black/white, which can be a great way of creating masks for your design.
The image below demonstrate the separation with the Tonal box ticked and unticked:
Over
This option allows you to preview the separation ‘over’ the original design. To switch it on, untick Preview, tick Over, then tick Preview.
Show
These tick boxes allow you to include and exclude particular colour filters in an overall separation.
Spot Preview layer
When the Preview box is switched on, a temporary layer can be found at the bottom of the layer list named Spot Preview. This layer occupies no disk space and you cannot paint on it, although it can be selected which is useful for measuring tonal values or copying information from.
The colour of the Preview layer can be changed to help the separation, it can also be animated so you can pick a better colour if the original is not very close. The layer order can be changed to show how the overprint will look with the layer in the correct position and the transparency can be changed to provide an accurate fall on effect. You can also use the Gamma Window from the Edit Menu while previewing to test how the tones will work with the other layers (although you can only accept the gamma after the layer is fixed).
Drag and drop colours to the Spot Window
By holding down ⌘ and ⇧ on the keyboard with the Pipette Tool, selected in the Tools Palette, colours can be dragged directly from the design into the Spot Window. When you drag a colour and drop it into the main part of the Spot Window, a colour will be added as if you had pressed New. This shortcut only works when Preview is off. So, to do this while Preview in on, hold down ^ (control key) as well as the Command and Shift keys and drag the colour to the Spot Window in the same way.
If you prefer to see the colour you are selecting before it appears in the Spot Window, simply hold down ^ (control key) and click on the design (do not drag). The chosen colour will appear in the Foreground Colour Selector of the Tools Palette and can then be dragged from there to the Spot Window. As long as you keep ^ (control key) held down, you can click around in the design as many times as you wish until you get the right colour and the Foreground Colour will continue to update with the chosen colour.
As mentioned above, when Preview is switched on in the Spot Window, a temporary preview layer is created in the Layers Palette. The colour being separated can be dragged to this layer from the Spot Window. The colours themselves cannot be dragged out of the window, but when you click on the relevant colour, a colour block appears in the window under the Gamma Curve and this colour block can be dragged to the layer. This option enables you to see the separation in the selected colour, or in the default colour, helping to visualise how the tones will look in the relevant colours.
Deleting colours from the Spot Window
An unwanted colour can be removed from the Spot Window by highlighting it and clicking on the Delete button. Hold down ⌥ (option key) while clicking the Delete button to remove all the colours in the Spot Window at once. Only one colour needs to be highlighted to do this.
Load and Save settings from the Spot Window
All the colours in the Spot Window can be saved together by pressing the Save button. You can later restore these by pressing the Load button. Loading colours appends them to the bottom of the current list. The information saved includes the colours in the window, their gammas and their mode and depth status.
Fixing the Preview layer
When you are satisfied with the preview of your separation, press Fix, which changes the preview layer to a regular 8 bit layer. If the Tonal check box is switched off before you press Fix, the layer that is created will be a 1 bit layer.
If you close the Spot Window while viewing a ‘Spot Preview’ layer and it has not been fixed, this preview layer is removed from the layer list. However, the filters are stored in the Spot Window, so the preview layer can be recreated later, by reopening the Spot Window and clicking on the Preview button, then selecting Fix.