Read This First

Do I always have to set up spot colors in order to print a specialty element?

Nope! If you're only printing a specialty element with no other print on the document, then you can just send us a file in black and white. Whatever is black is what we'll print the element in. Whatever is white is considered the paper.

Overview

There are 3 important elements in setting up files for specialty printing. 

1. Organize your layers.
2. Spot Color Assignments - how our printers detect the specialty elements.
3. Overprinting - printing the specialty elements on top of the print so that no thin white lines appear around the specialty element on the final product.

If you do both of these items correctly, we will be able to process your order more quickly and print with higher quality. We'll go over both of these in detail below.

Step 1 - Organize your files using Layers

Create a new layer and call it whatever the specialty element is.

You should have 1 layer for all your normal printed artwork and 1 additional layer for each specialty item. This will make it easy for you to adjust your art later.

Click here to learn more about layers.

Step 2 - How to load Nonstop Printing Specialty Spot Colors

Click here to download "Nonstop Specialty Spot Colors".

Adobe InDesign

1. Open InDesign document.
2. Go to swatches panel by clicking on top tab window-color-swatches.
3. Go to the swatches panel, click on the small menu icon on top right of the swatches panel.
4. Click on "Load Swatches".
5. Double click on the "Nonstop Specialty Spot Colors.ase" file you just downloaded.
6. All the spot colors are now loaded into your InDesign document.

Adobe Illustrator

1. Open Adobe Illustrator document.
2. Go to swatches panel by clicking on top tab window-swatches.
3. Go to the swatches panel, click on the small menu icon on top right of the swatches panel. 
4. Click on "Open Swatch Library" - "Other Library".
5. Double click on the "Nonstop Specialty Spot Colors.ase" file you just downloaded.
6. All the spot colors are now loaded into your Illustrator document.

Step 3 - How to set up Overprinting.

Overprinting the specialty art is important so that you do not get thin white lines around the specialty elements. 

When do we need to overprint?

• If you are printing a specialty element directly on top of other artwork
• If you want a color to appear on top of a white element on a dark paper.

How to set up your elements so that it will "overprint".

Adobe InDesign

1. Open InDesign document.
2. Select the elements that you are applying. If you've organized your layers correctly, you can select all the elements easily.
3. Go to the top tab and click on "Window" - "Output" - "Attributes"
4. Check off the box that says "Overprint Fill" and/or "Overprint Stroke".
5. Export your file as a PDF. 
6. Check and see if you correctly assigned the spot color and overprint settings by viewing this tutorial: Using Output Preview to Check Spot Colors

Adobe Illustrator

1. Open Illustrator document.
2. Select the elements that you are applying. If you've organized your layers correctly, you can select all the elements easily.
3. Go to the top tab and click on "Window" -  "Attributes".
4. Check off the box that says "Overprint Fill" and/or "Overprint Stroke".
5. Export your file as a PDF. 
6. Check and see if you correctly assigned the spot color and overprint settings by viewing this tutorial: Using Output Preview to Check Spot Colors