Illustrator eps Registration color does not print from Quark

[sequoyah]

Objects colored in registration in Illustrator eps do not print from Quark. They do print as expected from Indesign. I have tested Illustrator 8, 9, 10, and CS, with Express 4, 5, and 6.5 with no luck. Is this a known issue? This problem should have come up many times by now, with so many people using Express to do impositions. I could not find any thing on the Quark site forums, although the search engine there is very poor. Searching this forum didn't pan out either.

I noticed that Illustrator names that color swatch "[Registration]," while Quark calls their's "Registration." So I made a simple AI.eps test file with just a box filled with that swatch. Then opened that file in BBEdit and changed all instances (4) of "[Registration]" to "Registration." Then placed that in an Express page along with a box filed with a PANTONE color and printed separations, but the eps object did not print. So it isn't just a naming issue. I also noticed that in Illustrator, "[Registration]" is in RGB mode, but I could not do any thing about that because it is all grayed out in the color edit dialog.

Does anyone know anything about this?

[zimmy]

Is your Illy document set to rgb ? (File/Document color mode)
Mac or PC?

[sequoyah]

Platform is Mac OS X or 9.2.2.

I have tried Illi doc. color mode both RGB and CMYK. The [registration] swatch is in the corresponding color mode, but Express just will not separate the Illustrator [registration] objects along with spot colors as it should.

Al Ferrari

[almaink]

For what it's worth I have seen this as well. My solution is to use the Illy marks for position then remake the trims in Quack using Quacks registration color.

[zimmy]

Hey,
Ijust tried it and it worked fine.
I opened a new ILLY10 document(cmyk mode) drew a box,
colored box registration. Went to swatch pallette made a (yellowxxx/100y) spot color,made another box,filled with yellowxxx,saved as eps
cmyk postscript option checked and level2 checked,
placed in a quark 4.11 doc,printed seps. to a postscript file then distilled
to view my seps....look ok.

What kind of printer do you have selected when you print seps from Quark?
A ps printer?

[sequoyah]

Ijust tried it and it worked fine.
I opened a new ILLY10 document(cmyk mode) drew a box,
colored box registration. Went to swatch pallette made a (yellowxxx/100y) spot color,made another box,filled with yellowxxx,saved as eps
cmyk postscript option checked and level2 checked,
placed in a quark 4.11 doc,printed seps. to a postscript file then distilled
to view my seps....look ok.

Zimmy,

What does "look ok" mean? Was the [Registration] colored box on the same sep as the (yellowxxx/100y) spot color box?

What needs to be tested is wether Express includes [Registration] colored objects from an Illustrator eps in separations of Express based PANTONE colors.

Your test is for Illustrator spot colors and Illustrator [Registration]. Not quite the same thing.

And yes, I am printing to genuine poscript devices.

Al Ferrari

[zimmy]

Al,
Ok I did my test further,after placing my Illy eps file in Qk,
it brought in a pantone color(Reflex Blue),so I drew 2 circles in Qk,
filled 1 with Qk registration and the other with Reflex Blue.So now I have a Quark doc with an Illy eps(containing 1 registration colored object and 1 Reflex colored object) and 2 circles drawn in Qk,1 colored Qk registration and 1 Reflex.
Printed seps from Qk and everything looks correct to me.

If you want to PM me your e mail I'll send you the PDF im checking it with

to see if this is what your talkin about.
Iv'e been using Qk for years(especially for printing only) and can't recall this as being a problem.

zimmy

[sequoyah]

Zimmy,

You consistently make your tests more complex than the one I originally described. Try an Illustrator eps with ONLY a [Registration] colored object, nothing else. Place that in an Express page having an Express object colored in an Express PANTONE spot color and NOTHING else, NO Express Registration color used. Print separations for that Express page. Do you get the Illustrator [Registration] colored object on the same separation as the Express PANTONE colored object?

Al

EDIT 6/5: Zimmy has aknowledged by private email that this would not work.

[sequoyah]

Originally Posted by almaink

For what it's worth I have seen this as well. My solution is to use the Illy marks for position then remake the trims in Quack using Quacks registration color.

Thanks for confirming the problem described in my original post. Your work around solves the color problem, but is subject to position error if the very poor on screen preview is used to align the Express trims with the ones in the eps.

It can work, however, if you work by the numbers: noting the exact coordinates for the trims in Illy and then calculating the location for the trims manually placed in Express. That's a lot of work. Better to use Indesign which will recognize the Illy [Registration] color and treat it as its own. Plus it gives you an excellent trapping engine, but you would have to place the Illy graphic as an .AI file instead of .eps in order to trap that internally.

Al Ferrari

[almaink]

Thats correct Al. I ditched Quack a long time ago in favor of Indy but unfortunately I still have to keep Quack because of a few pretards that refuse to see the light.