Pantone bug?

[Steve Rickaby]

At 13:42 -0400 27/7/07, Kenneth C. Benson wrote:
>
>>. Edit the color to C:50, M:100, rest 0
>>
>>. I now see Ink name: None, print as spot
>
>Although your ink name changes when you edit the definition (it doesn't change here), you can call it whatever you want, I think. Try copying the name before you edit the definition, and then paste the name back over "None" after you edit the definition.

No, not possible: although the 'Name' field - i.e. the name by which the color is known to FrameMaker - can be edited, the 'Ink Name; field is not editable. At least, it isn't FrameMaker 7.0 for Mac.

To recap, the color definition dialog here has four fields above the CMYK sliders:

Name [editable]

Ink Name [not editable]

Print As [choice of Tint, Spot, Process, Don't print]

Model [choice of CMYK, RGB, HLS]

>>I.e. FrameMaker has, quite properly, dropped the ink name
>
>I disagree that this is proper. Changing the definition of a spot color is easily and commonly done in other programs.

Ok. But what I'm saying is that you can call it anything you like in the Name field, but if you change the CMYK makeup, the [non-editable] 'Ink Name' field goes from 'Pantone 164CVU' to 'None'. However, this does not seem to matter - see below.

>>. Format a body para with the synthetic 'Pantone', print to Ps, distill
>
>I thought the synthetic spot color was called "None". Did you rename it "Pantone"?

No, it's *named* Pantone 164CVU, but it's ink name is 'None'.

>>. Preflight: plates = 5, C M Y K, Pantone 164.
>
>Are your CMY plates blank?

Seem to be, yes. I have a PDF with one word in Pantone, and its showing 100% spot - as it should.

The presence of process black as opposed to spot black is another issue, and one that's been aired here before. It's not related to this discussion.

The bottom line would seem to be that although FrameMaker appears to be dropping the ink name when a Pantone is dickered with in the color definitions, it is still outputting the correct plate definition. Which is all to the good.

-- 
Steve