Adobe Indesign CS3 – Using the Color Picker

If you have used Photoshop, you are probably familiar with Photoshop’s Color Picker, which is accessed through the foreground or background color icons in the Tools panel. Adobe Indesign CS3 also has a Color Picker, which is opened through the Tools panel.

To define a color using the Color Picker:

1. Double-click either the Fill icon or the Stroke icon in the Tools panel. This opens the Color Picker.
2. Use the RGB, LAB, or CMYK fields to define the color.
3. Click ok to apply the color to the current fill or stroke.

Note: When you click the RGB or LAB controls, the Color Space area at the left of the dialog displays one of those color controls. When you click the CMYK controls, however, the Color Space area does not display the CMYK color controls.

To define a color swatch using the Color Picker:

1. Double-click either the Fill icon or the Stroke icon in the Tools panel to open the Color Picker.
2. Use the RGB, LAB, or CMYK fields to define the color.
3. Click the Add [RGB, LAB, or CMYK] Swatch button to add the color to the Swatches panel.
4. Click ok to close the Color Picker.

Adobe Indesign CS3 – Creating Tints

Tints are screened, or lighter, versions of colors. Spot color tints create screens of the base color. Process color tints reduce the amounts of the process inks that define the color.

To create a tint swatch:

1. Select the base color, that is, the swatch color that you want to tint.
2. Use the Tint field in the Swatches panel to create a screen of the swatch color.
3. Click the New Swatch icon to store the tint percentage as a swatch in the Swatches panel.

As you select a color swatch as a base color, the Color panel displays a slider and a ramp of the color.

To tint a swatch using the Color panel:

1. Select the swatch color that you want to tint.
2. In the Color panel, use the slider or click in the ramp to create a percentage of the base color.
3. Click the New Swatch icon to create a tint swatch of the percentage you defined.

You can also create a tint swatch using the Swatches panel menu.

To store a tint swatch of a color:

1. In the Swatches panel, select the base color, that is, the color you want to tint.
2. Choose New Tint Swatch from the Swatches panel menu. The New Tint Swatch dialog box appears.
3. Adjust the tint slider to a percentage.
4. Click ok. The tint swatch appears in the Swatches panel with the same name as the base color but with the tint percentage listed.

Once you store a tint swatch, you can modify the tint percentage. This updates all the objects that use that tint swatch.

To modify tint swatches:

1. Double click the name of the tint swatch in the Swatches panel. This opens the Swatch Options dialog box for tints.
2. To change the tint value, adjust the Tint slider at the bottom of the dialog box.
3. Click ok to apply the changes.

Adobe Indesign CS3 – Using Swatch Libraries

Rather than defining your own color mixtures, you can use the swatch libraries for professional color systems from companies such as Pantone or Trumatch. These color libraries usually have printed samples that you can refer to in order to see how the color will appear when printed.

To add colors from swatch libraries:

1. Open the New Swatch dialog box or the Swatch Options dialog box.
2. Choose one of the swatch libraries listed in the Color Mode list. This displays the colors in the library.
3. Scroll through the library to select the color you want to add to your document or Instead of scrolling through a long list, type the name or number associated with the color in the Swatch Library field.

You can use the swatch libraries to open color panels from other InDesign documents and Adobe Illustrator documents.

To import swatches from other documents:

1. Choose Other Library from the Color Mode list.
2. Navigate to select the InDesign or Illustrator document. The colors appear in the window.

Adobe Indesign CS3 – Defining and Storing Swatches

Although it is very quick to create a color using the Color panel, you will find it more efficient to create color swatches. A swatch is a color that has been defined and is stored in the Swatches panel.

Unnamed colors are not available for all places where you use colors. For instance, only named color swatches can be used as part of text styles.

To work with the Swatches panel:

1. If the Swatches panel is not visible, choose Window > Swatches to open the panel or If the Swatches panel is behind other panels, click the Swatches panel tab.

2. To see the different types of swatches, click the icons at the bottom of the panel as follows:

• Show All Swatches displays both the color and the gradient swatches.
• Show Color Swatches displays only the color swatches.
• Show Gradient Swatches displays only the gradient swatches.

3. To change the display of the swatches in the panel, choose the following from the Swatches panel menu:

• Name displays a list of the swatch names in a large typeface.
• Small Name uses a more compact typeface to display the swatch names.
• Small Swatch displays only the square of the swatch color or gradient.
• Large Swatch displays a larger square of the swatch color or gradient.

Although you can apply colors to objects and text directly from the Color panel, this is not considered a good production workflow. Instead, use the Swatches panel to add the color currently defined in the Color panel.

Working in Color in Adobe InDesign CS3

Adobe InDesign CS3 gives you, right from the first day you use it, all the color controls you could ever wish for. InDesign gives you, right from the first day you use it, all the color controls you could ever wish for. However, with that power comes some responsibility.

When you define colors and use them on your pages, you are wearing two hats. Your first hat is that of a designer who looks at the aesthetics of the page and then applies colors. This is where you have fun with your creativity.

Your second hat is that of production manager. Wearing that hat you need to understand some of the principles of color and printing color documents. You also need to make sure your colors are defined so they print correctly.

The Basics of Color

Here’s a quick primer to help you understand what happens when you define and apply colors in your InDesign layout, as well as other programs.

CMYK stands for the cyan, magenta, yellow, and black inks that are combined to create other colors. Also called process color, this is the primary type of color used in color printing. Most magazines and brochures are printed using the four process color inks.

RGB stands for the red, green, and blue lights that are used in computer monitors to display colors. Because RGB colors are based on light waves, not inks, there will always be a slight difference between colors defined as RGB and those defined as CMYK. RGB colors can be used to define colors for documents that will be displayed onscreen. But you should not use them for print work.

The LAB is another light-based color model that uses luminance (L) combined with the green to red (A) plus yellow to blue (B). As with RGB, you should not define print colors using this system.

Spot colors are specialty colors that are printed without using the four process color inks. For instance, a metallic gold in a brochure is printed using metallic gold ink, not a combination of CMYK colors. Spot colors can be mixed to display colors that could not be created using simple CMYK colors.

Tints are colors that have been screened so that only a percentage of their color appears on the page.

Mixed inks are combinations of at least one spot color and another spot or process color.

Adobe Indesign CS3 – Simple Process-Color Trapping

In process-color trapping, you’ve got to make your overprinting strokes different colors from either the background or foreground objects. Why? Because process colors have a way of creating new colors when you print them over each other. It’s what they do best.

As in the spot-color trapping section above, I’ll demonstrate process-color trapping techniques by example. First, create a couple of objects.

1. Create a rectangle that’s filled with “Color 1″, which is specified as 20C 100M 0Y 10K.
2. On top of this rectangle,draw an ellipse and fill it with “Color 2″, which is specified as 0C 100M 50Y 0K.
3. Select both objects and set their stroke to None.
4. Save the file.

The ellipse needs to be trapped, or you run the risk of having cyan-colored lines appearing around the ellipse when the publication is printed – which could happen if the cyan and yel low plates aren ‘t in good register, or if your paper stretches.Whether you spread or choke the ellipse depends on its color. If the ellipse is darker than the background rectangle, choke the ellipse. If the ellipse is a lighter color than the background rectangle, spread the ellipse. In this case, the ellipse is a lighter color, so you’ll use a spread. To spread the ellipse,follow these steps.

1. Create a new process color containing only those colors in “Color 2″ having higher values than “Color 1″. Quick quiz: what component colors in “Color 2″ have higher values than their counterparts in “Color 1″? If you said 50Y, you’re the lucky winner. Specify a new color:0C 0M 50Y 0K.
2. Select the ellipse.
3. Press F10 to display the Stroke palette, if it’s not already visible. Enter the stroke weight you want for your stroke in the Weight field.It should be twice the width of your desired trap.
4. Apply the color swatch “Color 3 ” to the stroke of the ellipse and set it to overprint.

When you print, all the areas around the ellipse have some dot value inside them, and the new colors created where the objects abut won’t be too obvious.Choose Revert from the File menu to get ready for the next example.

What if the ellipse is the darker color? If it were, we’d have to choke it. To choke the ellipse,follow these steps.

1. Select the ellipse and fill it with “Color 1″. Select the rectangle and fill it with “Color 2″.
2. Create a new color (“Color 3″) that contains only the largest color component in “Color 1″. That’s 100M, so “Color 3″ should be specified as 0C 100M 0Y 0K.
3. Use the Weight field in the Stroke palette to specif y the weight of the trap you want.
4. Set the stroke color to “Color 3.”
5. Turn on the Overprint Stroke option in the Attributes palette.

When you print, the stroke you applied to the ellipse guarantees that there’s no gap around the ellipse, even if you run into registration problems when you print the publication.

At this point, you’ve read your way through the manual trapping techniques, and are seriously considering hiring twenty house elves to take care of your trapping needs. But wait – InDesign includes two powerful automatic trapping methods : In-RIP trapping and InDesign built-in trapping.

Adobe Indesign CS3 – Process-Color Trapping

Process-color trapping is a bit simpler than spot-color trapping,because it’s usually less critical that process-colored elements have traps, but it can be far harder to figure out exactly what color to make the stroke for a process-colored object. And when you’re talking about trapping two process-colored graduated fills, watch out!

The main thing to keep in mind, however, is that, for each of the process inks, the ink percentage used in the topmost object in any stack of objects always wins – they knock out all percentages of that ink behind them, regardless of any overprinting settings.

Unless, that is, the ink percentage is zero. If, for example, the percentage of cyan used in the fill color of the topmost object in a stack of objects is zero, turning Overprint off makes the path knock out any other cyan in the area covered by the path. Overprinting the fill, in this case, means that the area taken up by the fill disappears from the cyan plates – the percentage of cyan in the next object in the stack shows through the area where the objects overlap.

Another way to think of this is to think of each ink in a process color as behaving like a separate spot ink.

Adobe Indesign CS3 – Trapping Text

Text is usually the element in a publication that needs trapping the most. For whatever reason, it’s easier to notice poor trapping around text than around other elements. At the same time, traps that are too large distort the shapes of the characters you’re trapping. It’s especially a problem with small type, especially serif type.

Here’s how to create a spread for text.

1. Draw a rectangle,create a spot color (“Color 1″), and apply it to the rectangle.
2. Enter text in a text frame. Position the text frame on top of the rectangle so that it ’s entirely within the area occupied by the rectangle.
3. Create a second spot color (“Color 2″) and apply it to the text in the text frame.
4. While the text is still selected, display the Stroke palette. Enter the stroke weight you want (remember, it’s two times the amount of trap you want) in the Weight field. Turn on the Overprint Stroke option in the Attributes palette.

The next example shows how you can choke text by making the shape the characters knock out of the background a bit smal ler than the characters themselves.

1. Draw a rectangle,create a spot color (“Color 1″), and apply it to the rectangle.
2. Create a text frame. Position the text frame on top of the rectangle so that it’s entirely within the rectangle.
3. Create a second spot color (“Color 2″). Select all the text in the text frame and apply “Color 2″ to the fill of the text.
4. Without deselecting the text, press F10 to display the Stroke palette. Enter the stroke weight you want for the trap in the Weight field. Turn on the Overprint Stroke option in the Attributes palette.

If text crosses color boundaries, use the techniques described earlier for trapping overlapping paths.

Adobe Indesign CS3 – Trapping Lines

The trapping techniques above work well for filled paths,but what open paths? After all, you can’t apply two different stroke properties to a single path. Instead, you clone the path and make the width of the clone larger or smaller to achieve the spread or choke you want. One of the strokes overprints; the other line knocks out.

Follow these steps to spread an open path.

1. Draw a rectangle. Create a spot color and fill the rectangle with it.
2. Draw a path inside the rectangle.Create another spot color and apply it to the path. Do not set this path to overprint.
3. Select the path and clone it.
4. Press F10 to display the Stroke palette. Increase the stroke weight of the path by twice the amount of spread you need (remember, PostScript strokes grow out f rom their centers) and check the Overprint Stroke option in the Attributes palette to make the stroke overprint.

That’s all there is to it. The original path knocks a hole in the background rectangle, and the clone of the path spreads to just a little bit beyond the edges of the knockout.

To choke the path, follow these steps.

1. Draw a rectangle. Create a spot color and fill the rectangle with it.
2. Draw a path inside the rectangle. Create another spot color and apply it to the line. Set this path to overprint.
3. Select the path and clone it.
4. Display the Stroke palette. Decrease the weight of the path by twice the amount of choke you need. Leave the Overprint Stroke option in the Attributes palette turned off.
5. Use the Direct Selection tool to select the original path. Press Command-Shift-]/Ctrl-Shift-] to bring it to the front.

This time,the cloned path is narrower than the original, and knocks out an area that’s slightly smaller than the original path, creating a choke.

Adobe Indesign CS3 – Trapping Across Color Boundaries

The techniques described above work well as long as objects don’t cross color boundaries. If the objects do cross color boundaries (especially going from a color background to a white background), it’s too obvious that you’ve changed the shapes of the objects. What do you do?

1. Drag the ellipse so that it ’s partially outside of the rectangle.
2. Clone the ellipse. To do this,copy the object to the Clipboard, then press. Command-Option-Shift-V/Ctrl-Alt-Shift-V. This creates a copy of the ellipse exactly on top of the original ellipse.
3. Without deselecting the cloned ellipse, press F10 to display the Stroke palette, if it’s not already visible. In the Stroke palette, enter a stroke weight for the trap in the Weight field.
4. Turn on the Overprint Stroke option in the Attributes palette.
5. Select the ellipse, then note the values in the X and Y fields of the Transform palette.Press Command-X/Ctrl-X to cut the ellipse.
6. Select the background rectangle and choose Paste Into from the Edit menu.
7. Select the original ellipse and press Command-Shift-[/Ctrl- Shift-[ to send it to the back.
8. Using the Direct Selection tool, select the ellipse you pasted inside the rectangle. If the ellipse did not appear in exactly the same position as it occupied before you pasted it inside the rectangle, enter the X and Y values you recorded earlier in the X and Y fields of the Transform palette. InDesign moves the copy of the ellipse into the same position as the original ellipse.

At this point, the ellipse you pasted inside the rectangle spreads slightly, while the part of the ellipse outside the rectangle remains the same size and shape. Choose Revert from the File menu to get ready for the next trapping example.

What happens when the object you need to trap overlaps more than one other, differently colored object? In this case, you can run into trouble. The trap you use for one background color might not be the trap you want to use for the other. You might want to spread one and choke the other,depending on the colors you’re using.

In these cases, you can use the same basic techniques described above for the overlapping and/or abutting objects. But, at this point, I have to urge you to save yourself some trouble and use either of InDesign ’s automatic trapping methods.