Overprints in Illustrator - what's your SOP?

[ZooCity]

I use overprinting frequently in Illy.  Some days though, I waste yards of film because I botched the settings or forgot to grab  an element and assign spot colors properly, etc.  I need to issue some standard operating procedures upon myself for final output. 

The issue always pops up with provided vector files.  I build mine with spots from the get go and all overprints already in mind.  If supplied vector art is really messy it get drug into PS at 350-600ppi and channel sepped. 

I do use overprint preview and adjust opacity (just for viewing, never for output) to view what's going on but it feels like I'm missing something overall, it just doesn't flow for me at this point. 

I think my weak points are in:
 

• my ability to "clean down" the often sloppy, masked up vector art into clean compound shapes. 
• selecting these cleaned shapes to assign overprinting without forgetting any elements and avoiding selection of ones you don't want overprinted
• previewing in overprint preview correctly to get a good visual on these overprints as well as any trapping. Is there even a way to view spot color %s correctly or will Illy always mix in white on the monitor?

A really tight preview method might solve 90% of my problems.  I used to "manually" separate all my files and I work visually this way on each color.  It's a kind of old school mentality like with cutting rubylith but I'm not from the old school, it's just the way I envision it when separating.

Interested to hear what others in the art dept or doing and cheers to those of you who are the art department at your shop. 

[Gilligan]

I still want a script that finds any CMYK elements left on the artwork.

It has to be simple... I just haven't had the time to dig up the write code.  That and it would take someone with proper knowledge of scripting about 5 mins to write that script makes me too lazy to get it done.

I'd think a handful of scripts could go a long way into helping us with problems like this.

[Sbrem]

Well the old school, which I am, and the new school are trying to do the same thing, separate colors. You maybe need to make a checklist to follow as you go; you obviously know the job, just write down the steps and follow them. When I'm doing this, (getting ready to send to the printer) I'll select one colored element that is supposed to overprint, select "Same Fill Color" to get all similar elements, then make sure the Overprint check box is checked in the Attributes pallet. Then, I'll "hide" them to be sure the white under base was behind them. You just need a consistent method. As for customer supplied vectors that are a ton of shapes overlaid, I like to "Flatten Transparency" then "Merge". All strokes are converted to shapes, fonts are converted to outlines, and there are no overlays. Hey, we all make mistakes sometimes...

Steve

[Denis Kolar]

Print a separations to a PDF file. Open and check for a CMYK.

[Gilligan]

I know there are work arounds.

But there could be a script that selects the items one by one and lets you then color them if you need.  Or maybe it has an option to select them all and if it's a bunch of non-sense then you can trash it all quickly.

The proofing method does a great job of letting you know where the problems are but not as easy to fix once you are back in Illustrator.  someone else (forgive me for not remembering who) taught me about the "select same as" then "hiding" and going on and on till all spot colors are selected and hidden.  This works pretty well.

A script would just be a 'one click' solution though.

[ZooCity]

I literally do what Steve does.  I think I just need to hone it in. 

I actually delete/undo to "hide" elements and yep, that 'select same' is used constantly, need to make my own shortcut for it really. The 'select all unused' in the swatch window works well in tandem with 'select same' to weed out non-spot colors before output.

[Gilligan]

Same here.... need to make a short cut.

I'm gonna look at that "select unused" bit.

[Sbrem]

Gill, once you've assigned all of your colors to the image, in the upper right of the swatch pallet, the little drop down menu, drag down to select all unused, and it, well, selects all unused colors, then you can trash them to unclutter the pallet...

Steve

[Gilligan]

Oh, I thought it would select all unused on the art board.

I use that function all the time.  That's how I start off, before I start creating spot colors.

[ZooCity]

The hidden feature of select all unused swatches is that, presuming all colors in the art are present as swatches, it let's you know what's left out there.  I use this to hunt down little bits that I don't want but primarily when doing live traces with multiple colors which I then reduce in color + draw onto which, for me, is a heavily used technique to generate 1-3 color images. 

[patfinn]

the best way that I battle this is open separation preview and click overprint preview, click off all of your spot colors (they are under the CMYK) and if you have any colors left that havent been assigned you will see them because all of your SPOTs are taken off the screen.

also another easy way is to go into your print menu and select host based seps, and your spot colors should be in there and if there is any cmyk  left in there the cymk tabs will still be there..

but separation preview is one of my favorites.

[Gilligan]

But selecting them quickly and easily is the goal I'm after.

Finding out they are there isn't too bad, it's getting rid of them after you do see they are their.  Sometimes it's essentially "invisible" objects and I just like my stuff clean and clear of all CMYK items before I print films.

[3Deep]

I use my layer pallet and start turning off layers until I find the one with cymk in it or that rouge color i don't need....best to start with all your spot colors unless you,ve pulled in a pc of clipart then the party starts.

Darryl

[Sbrem]

the best way that I battle this is open separation preview and click overprint preview, click off all of your spot colors (they are under the CMYK) and if you have any colors left that havent been assigned you will see them because all of your SPOTs are taken off the screen.

also another easy way is to go into your print menu and select host based seps, and your spot colors should be in there and if there is any cmyk  left in there the cymk tabs will still be there..

but separation preview is one of my favorites.

Gotta check that out, I've never used it. Thanks, Pat.

Steve