need help with color separation

It really depends on the content of the job.

How many colours are in it?
How many spot colours do you need in the job?
What other software do you have access to?
How are your photoshop skills?

if it is a true 4 colour (cmyk) image then converting it could be complicated.

RebD, do you need to use Pantone inks? In other words, was that intended in the document you've produced? If not, I would think that your printer should be able to use "process colours", and do CMYK colour separations using the file you have.

Frankly, if the job is high-end enough to need specific Pantone colours, you probably don't want to be using Pages (or Word, or any other non-professional design application) to do the layout.

PowerMac G5 Mac OS X (10.4.4)

It's true that pages is'nt really able to handle colour seperations too well. It is really essentially just an enhanced (albeit extremely good) word processor!

I have version 2 infront of me now so I dont know if it will be the same buuut:

In the colours palette, next to where it says 'list' there is a menu, you should be able to choose between - apple, developer, aquapro, crayons, and then some chinese looking symbols. Choose the symbols and it should give you a load of swatches to choose from, these all have pantone numbers (i recognise them because it's my job!) Just select the one you want and apply it to all the areas that you need in that colour!

I have never tried printing offset from pages before but I see no reason why this should not work.

p.s. if you want to do the printer a favour then supply them the pages file AND a pdf!

Hope this helps, if not then I am watching this thread and will try to come up with something better!

Good luck

Hmmm, I have just tried my own advice it with no success, so i can only assume that pages (like ms word) does not support spot colours, and it would probably cost alot to pay someone to pull the file apart in photoshop. Don't dispair though, I think your best option is to get the job printed digitally. Take the job to a printer that has the large xerox or canon machines (or similar), these will print from cmyk or rgb images in one pass, so you wont need to worry about seperations. As long as you don't want 1000s of sheets, this way might well work out cheaper too!

once again, a pdf file will probably be welcomed along with your pages one!

For the future, the best software to use (for offset printing) is probably quark or adobe indesign, but they are around 10 times the price of iwork 😟
pages will be more than adequate to get things printed digilally.

sorry i couldn't really solve your problem, hope you meet your deadline. (I feel your pain!! :p)

I was hoping to use this program for layout work (thats what I thought it was for, if a printer can't use it, what's the point!Why do they have all those brochure templates if they can't be printed, or am I using the wrong type of printer?).

Pages can output CMYK files just fine, which is what most brochures and similar documents would use (many of which, as lo_tech suggests, would be printed digitally). But Pages is simply not a high-end, professional page layout tool suitable for doing more complex things like using Pantone spot colours in separations. That really is the domain of specialized pro products like Quark XPress and Adobe InDesign.

That said, I would think your printer should be able to do a four-colour separation of the file you've provided. I may not be clear on what their objection is, but it sounds like they simply don't want to produce four plates for the print job, and instead want to only do two. I suppose that's understandable from a cost point of view, but even if the file has a narow colour range, it should still be possible (even if a bit more expensive) to do a CMYK separation.

The other option is as lo_tech suggested, and print it digitally. For short runs this will be cheaper than offset by quite a bit, although offset really benefits from economies of scale, unlike digital printing.

PowerMac G5 Mac OS X (10.4.4)

If you're using simply spot color with no complicated intermix, you might try this: Make a duplicate document, in one select all the black and lock it in place and delete the red. In the other, do just the reverse: delete the black. You now have one doc with just your black copy and one with just your red. Voila, poor man's separation.

Walt

Hullo Walt and RedB:

Yeah Walt, well said. What this job needs is a craftsman printer who can use his nouse as well as his mouse and get a couple of plates made. You don't need full on gravure inks for just a second colour, and I'd be willing to bet that old-fashioned photo litho could still beat Quark or inDesign from high resolution glossy prints of complex design or photography.

Cheers.