Setting up gradients for printing

[Gene@mpls]

I have never noticed this before- when I make a gradient from say PMS485
red to black- that the 485 end is not actually 485- it is washed out. It looks
the same on the monitor (unless I use softproof) but it prints lighter. What
am I missing here? Thanks Gene

 

[Letterbox Mike]

Just out of curiosity, try converting the 485 red from a spot color to process, it should look the same on screen and the printout should look better too. I don't know the technical jargon for this instance, but typically, if we're producing a gradient using spot colors or a spot to process gradient, we have to convert the spots to process to get smoother blends and more accurate color.

 

[Mike Paul]

I've ran into a couple gradient combinations that were tough to get right. It didn't matter if they were CMYK or RGB colors but rasterizing them fixed the washed out look.

 

[thewood]

The gradient color mode should match the colors used to make up the gradient. I would recommend converting the spot colors to cmyk colors and setting the gradient color mode to cmyk.

 

[Gene@mpls]

Thanks for the replies- the colors are not spots- they are cmyk, I haven't
tried converting to rgb to see if that makes a difference. Gene

 

[dbenec]

may or may not be related to what you're getting but - anytime I make a blend from color to black i make it from color to rich black instead of black only. if you go color to 100% black my experience is there will be a gray or washed out area in the middle extending out.