Tuesday 9 October 2012

Software Workshop 1 - Design for Print


CMYK - Subtractive colour model - Process Colours
Transparent Inks ( Colour Overlay range of colours )
Black is added afterwards for darker shades.
Neutral Grey Background is best for working with colour specific work.
It won't effect how the work looks.

Adding Colour - This can be done using the colour swatch panel


When creating your own colour scheme. Go into the colour pallet menu
Select all unused Swatches and delete them


Registration Marks for Printing


To mix own colours with the CMYK values. Go into the 
palette options and click show options. This will bring up the
colour values.


To Create a New Swatch click the option in the menu


You can rename if you like but its better to leave
it as the colour values as good practice

To confirm we are working in the right colour mode
check the colours by clicking the small list option
in the menu, this will show each colour by its value and
colour mode.



To Make a colour scheme in the swatch panel click
add selected colours / add all used colours


To change the swatch colour, double click on the
swatch menue to change the values.


If the global box is checked  it means that changing the colour of the swatch will 
change every object of that colour. If its unchecked there is no link
between the objects and swatch. This is good for changing full colour schemes.
GLOBAL - LINKED
NO GLOBAL - NOT LINKED


Today we are looking at how to set up an illustrator document from scratch
specifically for print. We are looking at creating colour swatches and playing with
the palette.

Global Colours allow you to make tints. The colour ink values stay
the same but you can change the shade. To add the tint to the 
scheme just click create new swatch in the menu.


Here are a selection of tints. You can see the tint value
in the menu on the right. You can change the swatch whenever
if you are not happy with how its looking


Spot Colours

A spot colour is a ready mixed ink that applies that colour. Spot colours
are cheaper as CMYK takes 4 inks and plates. Spot colour - 1 ink 1 plate.
Spot colour allows consistency also. You cant mix the colour wrong because its
all ready  correct. Items that have a world wide status like Heinz Beans will be printed
all round the world. So in order to get the packaging the same all round the world
a spot colour will be used for the packaging.

Pantone Swatches are used in the UK and in other places round the world.

To access pantone spot colours on illustrator use the swatch menu
as shown below.


The spot colour library is linked to the stock it will be printed on.
Always take this into account when designing for print.
Mainly using solid uncoated at the moment.

To find individual pantone colours from a swatch book. 

Type the code into finder bar


To add this to the swatches click add to swatches.
NEVER CHANGE THE NAME - printer won't know the name

To save the swatch palette. Click the option in the drop down menu


Save as AI for just illustrator swatches
Save as ASE - allows you to open the swatches in other programs - save
in a folder that is not the illustrator folder. - Create a separate folder
Tints will not be transferred!


Click load swatches in external program to use them ( In design, Photoshop... )


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