Adobe Illustrator CC 2015 - Manual (Page 480)

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Printing
Last updated 6/5/2015
Use the Live Color dialog box to globally convert and reduce colors. For example, if you want to convert a process color
document to a 2-color spot document use the Assign portion of Live Color, and specify which colors you want and how
they are assigned to existing colors.
More Help topics
Printing and saving transparent artwork
Reduce colors in your artwork
Create a trap
Set up overprinting
About color management in Adobe applications
Preview color separations
You can preview color separations and overprinting using the Separations Preview panel. To see a video on using the
Separations Preview panel, see
www.adobe.com/go/lrvid4021_ai .
Previewing separations on your monitor lets you preview spot color objects in your document, and check the following:
Rich black Previewing separations lets you identify areas that will print as rich black, or process black (K) ink mixed
with color inks for increased opacity and richer color.
Overprinting You can preview how blending, transparency, and overprinting will appear in color-separated output.
You can also see overprinting effects when you output to a composite printing device.
Note: The Separation Preview panel in Illustrator is slightly different from the Separation Preview panels in InDesign and
Acrobat, for instance, the Preview panel in Illustrator is for CMYK document mode only.
1 Choose Window > Separations Preview.
2 Select Overprint Preview.
3 Do any of the following:
• To hide a separation ink on screen, click the eye icon to the left of the separation name. Click again to view
the separation.
• To hide all separation inks on screen except one, Alt-click (Windows) or Option-click (Mac OS) the eye icon for
that separation. Alt-click (Windows) or Option-click (Mac OS) the eye icon again to view all separations again.
• To view all process plates at once, click the CMYK icon .
4 To return to normal view, deselect Overprint Preview.
While previewing separations on your monitor can help you detect problems without the expense of printing
separations, it does not let you preview trapping, emulsion options, printer’s marks, and halftone screens and
resolution. Work with your commercial printer to verify these settings using integral or overlay proofs. Setting inks to
be visible or hidden on screen in the Separations Preview panel does not affect the actual separations process—it only
affects how they appear on your screen during the preview.
Note: Objects on hidden layers are not included in an on-screen preview.
Print color separations
1 Choose File > Print.
2 Select a printer and PPD file. To print to a file instead of a printer, select Adobe PostScript® File or Adobe PDF.