Ok I'm stumped in Illustrator

[Doug S]

I've just started using Illustrator some for running my seps, I have been using  Corel Draw.   I've made sure that I'm using the colors from the pantone solid coated pallette and that they are at a 100 % tint.  The problem is that when I send them to accurip and select separations that even though it only shows say pantone black c that it still prints a halftone of the print instead of solid.  This doesn't happen every time which is confusing.  Anyone else have this trouble?

[jvanick]

on your print options screen in the output  section:

Mode: Seperations (Host-Based)
Both Convert all spot colors to process and overprint black are UNchecked
and that under Document Ink options, you only have the Pantone Black channel selected.

this always seems to work for us.

[Doug S]

I appreciate the response.  I'll have to check the next time I print to make sure those are unchecked.  I ended up just running them from Corel to get by.  Im just trying to venture to illustrator because there seems to be more design features with it.

[blue moon]

I appreciate the response.  I'll have to check the next time I print to make sure those are unchecked.  I ended up just running them from Corel to get by.  Im just trying to venture to illustrator because there seems to be more design features with it.

it might be file related. Next time you run into it send me the file, I'll take a look. I guess you can send the one you just had problems with.

pierre

[Doug S]

Pierre, can you pm me your email and I will send you this ai file?  Thanks

[Frog]

Pierre, can you pm me your email and I will send you this ai file?  Thanks

His email address should be right there in his profile. (As most are unless folks chose not to share that with members)
You will, however probably need to copy and paste the address and send from your regular email, as board emails don't take attachments

[Doug S]

Frog, I appreciate that, I guess I was having a duh moment.

[Croft]

I agree it may be the file, I had one this morning that had a couple different blacks pantone and black, I usually only get the halftone black if someone sends me a 1 colour black jpeg , they will print as a halftone for me.

I can't remember ever checking off the 2 boxes mentioned so I'm assuming they were already checked as a default.

[cbjamel]

The other big thing is no transparency. It can be 100% color but with 20% trans and it a halftone. Found that the hard way one day.

Shane

[blue moon]

just checked the file and all the settings. Everything seems to be in order. The only thing that's left is I opened the CC file in CS6 and something could have changed, but all the colors, opacities and print dialogs were set correct.

sorry . . .

pierre

[Doug S]

just checked the file and all the settings. Everything seems to be in order. The only thing that's left is I opened the CC file in CS6 and something could have changed, but all the colors, opacities and print dialogs were set correct.

sorry . . .

pierre

I really appreciate you checking it out for me especially knowing how busy you must be.  I ran out 2 sets of films today and both I created in Illustrator and colored Pantone Black C.  The first printed opaque and solid the 2nd came out as halftones.   I'll just keep beating the bushes until I see what I must have done wrong.

[blue moon]

just checked the file and all the settings. Everything seems to be in order. The only thing that's left is I opened the CC file in CS6 and something could have changed, but all the colors, opacities and print dialogs were set correct.

sorry . . .

pierre

I really appreciate you checking it out for me especially knowing how busy you must be.  I ran out 2 sets of films today and both I created in Illustrator and colored Pantone Black C.  The first printed opaque and solid the 2nd came out as halftones.   I'll just keep beating the bushes until I see what I must have done wrong.

first thing I would look into is making sure you did not have "printer controls color" in the profile. My thought would be that 90%+ of the cases are caused by that!

pierre

[mpot]

I had some of those problems as well.  So what I did was added a new spot color by adding a new swatch,  made sure it was a spot color black. Make sure your document color mode is set to CMYK, then in the separations preview window there will be two blacks. I always turn off the CMYK black and see what is left on the screen.
Not sure if this will help you but it was something I got hung up on for a while.
Matt

[Doug S]

I really appreciate all of the help.  Matt I just noticed that my document was in RGB mode, I'll print it again tomorrow after changing it to CMYK to see if that makes a difference. 

That's why I love this board.  Everyone jumps in to help.  You can bet your hat that if I can do anything for anyone that I will do my best to help.. 

[Doug S]

Just wanted to thank every one for the help.  What i did to solve the problem if it will help anyone else is not use the pantone solid coated pallet instead I just created my own spot pallet.  Now I'm getting solid instead of halftones.