Photoshop CS5.5 Tutorial - Spot Channels for PrePress

Photoshop CS5.5 Tutorial – Spot Channels for PrePress and Printing

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Running Time: 8 minutes

This Adobe Photoshop CS5.5 tutorial video will introduce Spot Channels. This is the third of four videos about working with channels. We will explain what Spot Channels are, and how they differ from regular Color Channels. Before you watch this video, we recommend you watch the previous Adobe Photoshop CS5.5 tutorial about Color Channels and Alpha Channels, and you can then follow this one with the Channel Mixer.

Spot colors are intended to be used with CMYK for printing. These will allow you to add extra colors for press such as PMS, create “bump plates”, or for detailed varnishes. The can be used to add a 5th color to a CMYK print run, or limit the image to a two color duotone image. Used with Quark Express or Adobe inDesign, either of the programs just mentioned can select, and print, the Spot Channel that was created in Photoshop.

More specifically, the spot channels will tell the desktop publishing program what color, and where, to place the ink on the plate. The the case of a 5th color PMS or Varnish plate, this will add cost to the press run. However, for a two color job, this can actually save money because you would not need to run 4 CMYK plates.