Quote:
Originally Posted by Techboy
In short, this sound like a job that can only be prep correctly at press? I don't think I can trust an outside designer (or even myself) to setup the files consistency nor correctly since I won't see any ink trapping problems on screen.  |
Don't sell yourself short Techboy, there is no better time than the present to learn some new tricks. Once you get comfortable editing individual channels, using Apply Image, and creating complex spot channels your P'Shop skills will soar to new heights.
In my line of work I am always having to create 5/c files files in P'shop. DCS files are the end result (in case you had never saved into that format yet). As everyone mentioned, trapping is crucial, especially w/ metallic inks.
One other thing you will quickly learn when working w/spot channels is that they trump the CMYK, you can not put your yellow information(for example) above the spot channel, and unless you want a muddy sheet of soup you need to create your own knockouts in P'shop. So say you have a 4/c image and you want a gold circle panel with a rough edge to sit in the middle (say for text). You would want to make a selection of the spot channel contract that selection by 1 pixel (minimum) and delete the information within that selection from the CMYK channels. That way you would have your gold going right down on paper, with a little bit of an overprinting edge.
And certainly it would be best to have a nice proofing system, but from previous posts of your that i have read I think we both work at publishers, and that tends to not be in the budget. Anyway, rip a PDF and view your overpint preview. That will help.
Good luck.
