printing problems!!

Hi, I'm doing a business card for my friend in photoshop (can't use japanese in illustrator), and he uses this specific company color. I switched the image to greyscale and used tritones for the pantone spot colors. However, it seems these pantone colors don't cover every color in the spectrum. Can I just choose the color I want using the hex code? also, I added bleeds to my card. When I am done, what file should I send to the printer? .tif? or the photoshop file? and also, how will they know where the bleeds start and where it ends? should I draw lines on the picture to show them? Last thing, why is it when you save a file in cmyk, the color gets so distorted? Thanks!!

you might consider saying thanks for answers to your other question before asking more questions

yes, (why did you go to grayscale/tritone in the first place?) but if he wants a certain pantone color for the logo you may have to add a fifth (spot) color, talk to your printer about how they want that specified.

either.

use crop marks or tell him there's a uniform bleed all the way around (should be 1/8").

see previous answer.

because cmyk doesn't have the color range that rgb does, certain colors don't translate over well (royal shades of blue in particular). do some adjusting with the hue/saturation tools and always get a proof to see how the colors will actually print.

chris

Hi, you're right. Sorry for not saying thanks, but thanks. I really appreciate the help you guys are giving me.

but yea, I changed the image to greyscale then to tritones because I don't know any other way to get to that "duotone" tab haha. So lets say I have the converted cmyk file. How do I get to set that spot color? Also, if the color isn't in the pantone list, can i just press 'picker' and use the hex code to choose the color? Thanks!!

well, you are correct in converting to grayscale if you want a duotone or tritone image, i guess i'm not entirely sure what you're trying to do colorwise. a spot color is generally specified on a separate layer with an alpha channel (actually its usually done in illustrator but that'd be the best way in photoshop). the point of a spot color IS that it's a pantone color though, that's the idea of using a spot color you so get the exact hue you've specified, you should be able to find or load the color you need if it's not there.

found a few things for you to reference:
http://www.graphic-design.com/Photoshop/Tips/channel.html
http://www.peachpit.com/articles/article.asp?p=23691&rl=1

chris

i'll look into those
thanks a lot

Hi, I just finished my card and I tried printing it at home. The dimensions are 600x1050, 2x3.5in, 300 dpi. I saved the file as a .tif and put it into the printer but the image didn't come out at 2inx3.5in. It looked more like the 600x1050 at 72dpi or something. Any ideas? What file type should I be saving as.. when I send it to the printer? Thanks