DCS 2 files-Illustrator CC2018 not showing any love

[Rockers]

Is there a fix for DCS 2 files not showing in Illustrator CC2018 anylonger . Is there a different approach that can be used to output my seps created in Photoshop via Illy and not having to deal with a blank page?

[Colin]

How old is your version of photoshop?

I use Photoshop CS4 at work.  I had to launch an old version of Iustrator CS6 in order to drop in my DCS 2 files.  So, I now use 2 versions of Illustrator.

I  have the cloud versions here at home, and they play very nice together.

[Rockers]

How old is your version of photoshop?

I use Photoshop CS4 at work.  I had to launch an old version of Iustrator CS6 in order to drop in my DCS 2 files.  So, I now use 2 versions of Illustrator.

I  have the cloud versions here at home, and they play very nice together.

Our Photoshop is CC2018

[Colin]

odd....

Are you placing them or doing a drag and drop?

When I get home I will play and see what happens

[Maff]

I've never tried DCS files, what's the advantage?

When I finish my seps in Photoshop, I just Place the PSD file in an open Illustrator file and embed it.  Then all the channels become separate layers in Illy and each channel/layer has it's own spot color. Put it over my reg template, add any vector if needed. And then print to my RIP.

Currently I'm on the latest CC with both programs, but I used to do it the same way while on CS6.

[Colin]

Yea, DCS 2.0 wont show up when placed.

But if you drag and drop into Illustrator it works.

It also works if you just drag your regular photoshop seps right into illustrator.  So no more need to save as DCS 2.0

[Rockers]

Yea, DCS 2.0 wont show up when placed.

But if you drag and drop into Illustrator it works.

It also works if you just drag your regular photoshop seps right into illustrator.  So no more need to save as DCS 2.0

So for example the files Dan did for us this week, .psd, we just drag the file into Illustrator CC2018 and it should all be plain sailing from there? I did try that but got an unsupported color mode warning and the file did not open.

[zanegun08]

They got rid of DCS support, I'm not at a computer but in the settings there is a box you can check in Performance that will display a low resolution version of the DCS.

Looks like people are now just placing PSD with channels like they were with DCS to get the same high resolution preview there once was before the update

https://forums.adobe.com/thread/2401778

More on the issue at the link above

[Sbrem]

when you finish your seps, don't save them as DCS. That's how I did it for over 20 years ago, but you can just "Place" the PS file with your spot channels into Illustrator, and it seems to work the same as DCS. We define our line count, angle and dot shape with Illustrator, using AccuRIP.

Steve

[Maff]

Yea, DCS 2.0 wont show up when placed.

But if you drag and drop into Illustrator it works.

It also works if you just drag your regular photoshop seps right into illustrator.  So no more need to save as DCS 2.0

So for example the files Dan did for us this week, .psd, we just drag the file into Illustrator CC2018 and it should all be plain sailing from there? I did try that but got an unsupported color mode warning and the file did not open.

The PSD file needs to remain as an RGB file (or cmyk) and those channels need to still be there for the file to be placed into Illustrator. If you open up you PSD file and the only channels are you separation layers (this would be a multichannel color mode) than you need to go back and add in RGB channels. You can do this by making 3 new channels, move them to the top of your channels window and then go to Image/mode/RGB and Photoshop will make those top 3 layers as RGB channels. 

It could also be your bit depth setting, make sure that stays at 8bits

Dragging and Placing the file in should do the same thing. Once the file is in Illustrator, you can then "embed" it and then all of your channels will come up in the Layers window, along with spot colors in your swatches window

Another error to look out for is to make sure your PSD channels are not labeled the same as you current swatch colors in Illustrator, otherwise it cause a conflict when importing.  So for example,  make sure the black channel is labeled as "spot black" or something like that.

[Colin]

Excellent Details!

[Rockers]

Excellent Details!

Yes indeed, there is so much great advise here.

Thanks so much.

[Rockers]

Yea, DCS 2.0 wont show up when placed.

But if you drag and drop into Illustrator it works.

It also works if you just drag your regular photoshop seps right into illustrator.  So no more need to save as DCS 2.0

So for example the files Dan did for us this week, .psd, we just drag the file into Illustrator CC2018 and it should all be plain sailing from there? I did try that but got an unsupported color mode warning and the file did not open.

The PSD file needs to remain as an RGB file (or cmyk) and those channels need to still be there for the file to be placed into Illustrator. If you open up you PSD file and the only channels are you separation layers (this would be a multichannel color mode) than you need to go back and add in RGB channels. You can do this by making 3 new channels, move them to the top of your channels window and then go to Image/mode/RGB and Photoshop will make those top 3 layers as RGB channels. 

It could also be your bit depth setting, make sure that stays at 8bits

Dragging and Placing the file in should do the same thing. Once the file is in Illustrator, you can then "embed" it and then all of your channels will come up in the Layers window, along with spot colors in your swatches window

Another error to look out for is to make sure your PSD channels are not labeled the same as you current swatch colors in Illustrator, otherwise it cause a conflict when importing.  So for example,  make sure the black channel is labeled as "spot black" or something like that.

This does work very well. Only problem I`m having now is that all colors have been replaced with black, in each layer. The warning upon opening the file was "that the document references color books that are currently not installed, these might be replaced with black". So how do I know which color book has been used?  Actually from what I can see in Photoshop Pantone solid coated was used which I have also installed in Illustrator. Still it`s all black.

[Dottonedan]

I've came up on a similar situation when trying to solve another issue.  I found that when placing these RGB and CMYK files into illy, the PMS colors gets changed to black like Rockers had said.

I simply went to my color swatches deleted all un used, then selected the color name I wanted to edit (for visual reference only) and change it to the color needed. This can be done by creating a custom color (lets say 361 green) or you can select 361 from the pantone swatch list.  Color names and modes, of placed channels are all editable.
Mine ripped fine this way.

The reason they come in black, is that one program is not using the same version of pantone swatches as the other so it doesn't recognize the color and changes them to black. Still editable tho.