When you bring in artwork to an InDesign file, and that artwork is using a spot
color, you don't have to worry about adding that color to the Swatches panel
ahead of time, that artwork actually imports it for you.
So here I have two spot colors in my Swatches panel, and I'm about to bring in
a Duo Tone. When I go to File > Place, and I choose
that Duo Tone, notice that even before we see the image, that new color, that
PANTONE 202 has been added to my Swatches panel.
So when I place him, now I think you start to suspect his color's a little bit different.
And we already had a hint when we see the spot color numbers, so there are some
issues with this that I'm going to need to fix.
Let's see what's going on, and where these colors are used.
When I go into Window and Output, and Separations Preview, and I turn on
Separations Preview, now I have three spot colors in my list.
I happen to know this is really a two color job.
So somehow, I'm going to have to combine these colors, or I'm going to have to
correct the art work. If I turn off the 185, you can see that's
used in this text. Well, that would be easy to change,
because that's something that was created right here in InDesign.
Then there's the 187, and that's used for most of these images, and then the
PANTONE 202 that came in when I imported the Duo Tone of the photographer.
It'd take a fair amount of time to go back to Illustrator and fix the logos and
fix the spiral. And it wouldn't take too long to go back
into Photoshop and fix these two images. But I really don't have to do that, and
this is one of the really nice things about InDesign.
You can actually fix this problem. I have three spot colors, I really should
just have one. I can do this all in InDesign without
having to change any of the artwork. And here's how you do it.
You do it with something called Ink Manager.
And you can find Ink Manager in several locations.
In the Swatches Panel, there's Ink manager.
In the Separation's Panel, there's Ink Manager.
And I think that's because sometimes these problems aren't discovered until
you go into Separations Preview. It doesn't matter where you choose it, it
still preforms the same function. Ink Managers purpose is to fix this
common, frankly fairly age old problem. Gee, I have multiple spot colors, but I
really only want one plate generated. So what you do is what's called Ink Aliasing.
So first I need to know what the correct color is.
And I just happen to know that PANTONE 187 is the correct color.
So I need everything on the 185 plate to go out on the 187 plate and everything on
the 202 has to go out on the 187 plate. And here's how I do it, I choose the 185,
and then the rest of this dialog sort of wakes up, and under Ink Alias, I tell it
to become 187. And I'll do the same thing for everything
that's using 202. I tell that to now become 187.
And you can see a little icon here. It's a little arrow pointing at an ink bottle.
When I click OK, well, nothing's changed. Look, I still have these spot colors.
I don't understand. but look over here in my Separations
Preview panel. I just have one.
And when I turn off that one color, notice that everything travels
together,and that's what I want. So it looks like it's correct in the
Separations Preview, but it's not correct over here.
Well, here's what's going on. The Ink Manager fix is actually a
non-destructive fix. So it gives you sort of a back door, if
for some crazy reason, you really wanted these three very close reds, they're
really still this way. So if I double-click that 185, we look in
here, it still is 185. So it's a non-destructive change.
If I hit File > Print, and I print out of InDesign or I create a PDF.
Those three colors are going to be combined into that one 187 plate.
So, the outgoing content is going to be correct.
It may seem to you that what's left behind in InDesign hasn't been fixed, but
it's InDesign's way of giving you sort of the best of both worlds.
If you needed to go back to the original arrangement of things, it's still there
it really hasn't been changed, but using Ink Manager has guaranteed that I'm
going to get correct output. Now, this might be a little bit confusing
to somebody who picks up the job, I wish there were little icons that appeared
here in Swatches panel to inform us that these colors have been managed by Ink Manager.
We don't have that. But you'll know that everything is all
right when you use your Separations Preview.
So, remember to use that as sort of a forensic tool to make sure you know
exactly what's going on in the file. And be glad to know that you can use Ink
Manager to fix this common problem without having to go back and change all
your artwork.