Random Spot Colors - Convert to CMYK

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Liv
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Random Spot Colors - Convert to CMYK

Post by Liv »

I am converting an illustrator to pdf. I would like to keep Pantone Coated spot colors, and change spot colors to Pantone Coated. But my issue is sometimes the customer files are sent with a random named spots, and I would like to convert them to CMYK.
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abailescollins
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Re: Random Spot Colors - Convert to CMYK

Post by abailescollins »

Hi Liv
Would this be the case for any non-Pantone color?
ie anything without 'Pantone' in the name?

Do you get dielines or emboss/deboss or 'double-hit' or anything like that as separation names?

Or brand names like Coca Cola Red, of Fred's Blue...
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Liv
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Re: Random Spot Colors - Convert to CMYK

Post by Liv »

Yes this would be for any none pantone named swatch. I would like to convert those to CMYK.
Thanks!
LasseThid
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Re: Random Spot Colors - Convert to CMYK

Post by LasseThid »

I did a flow in Switch that does a similar task.
This is the action list I use.

Perhaps it can help you as well?
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Convert Non Pantone Spot Color to CMYK if Alt Color Space is CMYK.eal.zip
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bens
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Re: Random Spot Colors - Convert to CMYK

Post by bens »

LasseThid that Action List will convert all spot colours because a check does not change the selection.

If you want to only convert spot colours that are not in a specific PANTONE library, you can use "Select spot color" and set it to "Select Spot Color by PANTONE color library".

If you want to select any non-PANTONE colour you could combine a bunch of "Select spot color" actions using the OR operator, then NOT to select everything else. But it's probably easier to take advantage of the fact that PANTONE colour names all start with "PANTONE":

Select spot color by regular expression PANTONE.*
NOT
Convert to CMYK
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Liv
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Re: Random Spot Colors - Convert to CMYK

Post by Liv »

I wish I understood regex better. How would you write that? Thanks for your help!
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Terkelsen
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Re: Random Spot Colors - Convert to CMYK

Post by Terkelsen »

You just write exactly as Ben suggest :-)

The regular expression to use is:

PANTONE.*

This will select any color which name starts with PANTONE
LasseThid
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Re: Random Spot Colors - Convert to CMYK

Post by LasseThid »

Thanks for the information Ben!

I noticed that I have accidentally created an Pantone Color with Lab as Alternate color space, that's why it worked as intended.. :oops:

It's been a while since I did that flow and it was only for testing purposes.

This works as intended:
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Last edited by LasseThid on Wed Feb 03, 2021 2:32 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Liv
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Re: Random Spot Colors - Convert to CMYK

Post by Liv »

Thank you!
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