# Need Help Separating Correctly



## theLeffla (Oct 30, 2014)

Hi all,
my name is Jake and I have been printing for about half a year now. I went to school for graphic design and got a job at a local screen printer. I use Illustator CS6 for all of my work and PS CS6 when I need to. I am still lost on how to get my Screenwriter 5 to print blacks so that when I go to setup my traps and bleeds I dont have to sit there and change all of my colors to black so that they print well on my vellum.


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## red514 (Jul 21, 2009)

use 'SPOT colours' when designing. that way all you need to do for the separation (besides create an under base if needed) is use the print dialogue (file>print>mode>separation host-based). the 4 CMYK colours should be turned off, if not then you still have CMYK in your design.


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## theLeffla (Oct 30, 2014)

red514 said:


> use 'SPOT colours' when designing. that way all you need to do for the separation (besides create an under base if needed) is use the print dialogue (file>print>mode>separation host-based). the 4 CMYK colours should be turned off, if not then you still have CMYK in your design.


Is there a certain spot book I need to be using, I can turn off all of the cmyk colors but I still do not see my spot colors?


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## red514 (Jul 21, 2009)

recommend using the Pantone Spot colour books as those are the norm for the majority of print shops.

there's probably no spot colours currently used in your design which is why they don't show up in your print dialogue. you can turn off the CMYK as you mentioned, however if they are turned on initially, that means your still have CMYK in your design, colours that needs to be replaced with spot colours.


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## steve1953 (Oct 29, 2014)

To create spot colors just double click on any swatch or select new swatch. In the dialog box you can adjust the sliders to create the color you want, give it a name and select spot color (instead of process color). You don't need to download PMS colors unless they are specified otherwise you run can run into the problem of the screen printer going to the trouble of custom mixing ink when it isn't necessary.


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## theLeffla (Oct 30, 2014)

Yea our problem here is my boss just buys ink, and doesn't tell me the colors and mixes ink without me knowing.


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## RedSword Ts (Dec 18, 2014)

Don't worry about the pms color. Turn any color into a spot color and communicate with your boss when he is mixing so you can see if he gets close to what you want.


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