Adding spot color

You can add spot color to selected areas of an image in different ways with varying effects. For instance, you can apply spot color to part of a grayscale image so that the selection prints in the spot color rather than in the base ink. Because spot colors in Photoshop print over the top of a fully composited image, you may also need to remove the base color in an image when adding spot color to it. If you do not remove the base color, it may show through the semitransparent spot-color ink used in the printing process.

You can also use spot color to add solid and screened blocks of color to an image. By screening the spot color, you can create the illusion of adding an extra, lighter color to the printed piece.

Removing a grayscale area and adding spot color

You’ll begin your work in spot color by changing the framework behind the woman to the spot color. You must first select the framework, remove it from the grayscale image, and then add the selection to the spot-color channel.

Removing spot color from a grayscale area

Now you’ll remove some spot color where it overlaps the grayscale area of a second layer of the image.

1.	In the Layers palette, click the eye icon box next to the Hammers layer to make it visible. (Click just the eye icon box. Do not select the layer.) Notice that the spot color of the framework overlaps part of the Hammers layer. You’ll remove this overlap by making a new selection and cutting it from the spot-color channel.
2.	If guides do not appear over the image, choose View > Show > Guides.
3.	Select the rectangular marquee tool (), and drag a selection from the top left edge of the image to the right horizontal guide and top vertical guide. Normal should be chosen for Style in the Marquee tool options bar.
4.	Make sure that the spot-color channel in the Channels palette is still active, and press Delete to remove the rectangular selection from the channel. In the image window, the spot color disappears from the hammers image. Making selection Selection cut from spot-color channel
5.	Choose Select > Deselect.
6.	Choose File > Save.

Adding solid and screened areas of spot color

Next, you’ll vary the effect of adding spot color by adding a solid block of the color and then a block of the color screened to 50%. The two areas will appear to be different colors even though you have used the same Pantone custom color on the same color separation.

First, you’ll make a selection for the solid block of color and fill the selection using a keyboard shortcut.

1.	Using the rectangular marquee tool (), drag a selection marquee around the white square area in the upper right corner of the image (bounded by the two guides).
2.	Hold down Alt (Windows) or Option (Mac OS), and press Delete to fill the selection with the foreground color. Because you are in the PANTONE 124 C channel, the foreground color is PANTONE 124 and fills the square with solid color. Making selection for spot color Selection filled with solid color Now you can add a lighter block of spot color to the image.
3.	Make a rectangular selection directly below the left hammer and bounded by the guides.
4.	In the Color palette, drag the color slider to 20% to set the value for the new block of color.
5.	Hold down Alt/Option and press Delete to fill the selection with a 20% screen of PANTONE 124. Making selection Color value set to 20% Selection filled with 20% color
6.	Choose Select > Deselect.
7.	Choose View > Show Extras or View > Show > Guides to hide guides.
8.	Choose File > Save.

Adding spot color to text

Text in an image can also appear in spot color. There are different methods for creating this effect, but the most straightforward is to add the text directly to the spot-color channel. Note that text in a spot-color channel behaves differently from text created on a type layer. Spot-color–channel text is uneditable. Once you create the type, you cannot change its specifications, and once you deselect the type, you cannot reposition it.

Now you’ll add text to the spot-color channel and place the text in the light block of spot color.

1.	In the Color palette, return the color slider to 100%.
2.	Select the type tool (), and click the image in the light block of color. A red mask appears over the artwork, and an insertion point for the text flashes.
3.	In the type tool options bar, choose a sans serif bold typeface from the Font menu (such as Myriad, which is included on the Adobe Photoshop 7.0 Classroom in a Book CD, or Arial), and enter 66 for the point size in the Size text box.
4.	Type work in the image window.
5.	Select the move tool (), and drag the text so that it is centered in the light block of color.
6.	Choose Select > Deselect.
7.	Choose File > Save. You have finished preparing the image for two-color printing. To see how the color separations for the printed piece will look, try alternately hiding and displaying the two color channels in the Channels palette.
8.	Click the eye icon () for the Gray channel in the Channels palette. The Gray channel is hidden, and the image window changes to just the areas of the image that will print in the spot color.
9.	Redisplay the Gray channel by clicking its eye icon column. Then hide the PANTONE 124 C channel by clicking its eye icon. Just the grayscale areas of the image appear in the image window.
10.	Click the eye icon column for the PANTONE 124 C channel to display both channels. Final image Black channel PANTONE 124 C channel

If you have a printer available, you can also try printing the image. You’ll find that it prints on two sheets of paper—one representing the color separation for the spot color and one representing the grayscale areas of the image.