Illustrator :: Making Film Negatives With Gradients
Oct 28, 2013
I am trying to convert a CMYK logo, which I didn't design, into pantone colors for film output (for negatives to make plates for a printing press), but there are many colors and gradients in the original file. I don't know much about offset printing, as I usually use a digital press, but I need to know how to best preserve the look of the original file. I can break down into 4 colors, but I lose the gradient effect... Is there a way to preserve that effect in a film negative? (I'm working in Illustrator CS6 on Mac OS X 10.6.8)
(The image to the left is the original logo... To the right, is the 2 color (Pantone) separation image, which will work for film output, but looks significantly different than the original. I don't know much about the offset press on which these logos will be printed, but I've been told it's a maximum of 4 colors per printed image. I know the press operator can mix any pantone color, but I think the film can only be separated into a maximum of 4 different colors....
Using an old enlarger I managed to take pictures of old 6x6 cm black and white film negatives. And promised someone to do so with a lot of them (her father's heritage). Â I have come up with the following temporary starting points:
I tried following Scott Kelby's instructions for color correcting digital images in PSE 10. I was entering the values he gave for the R,G and Blue channels. I got off track and probably missed a step. Anyway, now when I try any of the auto correction features, my images look like film negatives and not like a regular digital image. How can I re-enable the auto correction features (levels, color correction, etc.) ?
I have copied some colour negatives using my digital camera. What is the best procedure for removing the orange base colour of the film prior to converting them to positives?
I click the gradients panel and then the dropdown of gradients on the left side. Â All I see is: White Black, Gold Dust, and Blue Sky. Â I know AI has a ton more gradients premade than that so why aren't they in the list? How do I add more to that dropdown?
I know it´s possible to create new characters for realistic games, Mangás and even presentation, simulating pure skin, as in people using trunks. They can preserve the face, feet, hands and even chest, however they do limbs entirelly from scratch. I know they use the ´copy area´ button, but some skin can be made from the beginning, by means of noise, patterns and gradient. I would like to know some of these techniques
I´m almost expert using ´copy area´ effects until now, but I do know it´s insufficient for a good artwork. Some limb areas still looks ´repeated´ and ´painted-like´.
[URL]....to look like this USA flag. [URL] ....NO photoshop. [URL] .... Â What i had to do is make each "gradient section" a different "shape", and make it exactly the right angle to contour with the flag. Â I can do up and down gradients fine (even though it takes forever)how to do is the gradients that dont go up and down all the way.I could do this in about 3 seconds in photoshop, but I'm just about ready to give up in illustrator..
I have been continuously since buying CS5/Illustrator. Our company had its logo designed by another firm, and it has been my job to use it in brochures and marketing collateral. The logo uses a two instances of a radial gradient applied to two separate elements of the logo. The gradients are off-center. However, when I place the file into a document, save, close and re-open, boom! the gradient is reset to center, throwing off the logo. This has happened when I have least expected it, and even resulted in a very expensive reprint. Â I have converted the file to different formats: EPS, JPEG and PDF, but with the first, there is a loss of image quality, and with PDF, the gradient still moves out of place.
I'm currently working on some icons for our new agency website... When try to export files with gradients, which assigned to nicely named graphic styles, illustrator keeps exporting a strange st-class for every new gradient i'm generating and refuses to assign my class, like:  <style type="text/css">          .testStyle{fill:url(#SVGID_1_);} //my class with a useless gradient          .st0{fill:url(#testrect_1_);} // class generated by illustrator </style> <linearGradient id="SVGID_1_" gradientUnits="userSpaceOnUse" x1="0" y1="0" x2="1" y2="0"> // useless gradient with no height?!          <stop offset="0" style="stop-color:#FFFFFF"/>          <stop offset="1" style="stop-color:#000000"/> [code]....  When i change the code by myself, it works properly. But it's actually no option to change every svg by hand...
I frequently find myself recreating gradients created in illustrator using Photoshop. however, even when using the exact settings for color, opacity, and location, they never come out the same. is there some rule of thumb or some logic as to how those two applications create gradients and how to better approximate them?
the darker part of the ear where the black line starts and ends .. i want to make gradient............ is that possible .. or is there a technique to create that effect?
Is there a setting or preference that I can change so that my gradients with transparency set in them do not change to opacity masks after saving and closing?
I am new to Illustrator and am trying to create a 3D dish that looks silver on one side and gold on the other. Is there a way I can do this? If I want to add further shapes to the top of this dish is it better to add these before applying the 3D effect? If so is it possible to apply the gradients to only part of the shape? Â Alternatively would it be possible to use the gradient mesh in concave shape. The default mesh is convex. Is there an easy way to change this to concave?
I'm trying to create several different colored orbs that will have a consistent look using gradients. I've been playing around with Kuler and some other apps trying to pick the right shades for each orb to get a nice smooth transition, but I'm having a tough time picking the right colors for each of the gradient stops.
I tried to import from Adobe Ilustrator CS3 to Corel Draw X5 and certain gradients, probably the most complex ones, get pixelated. Is there a solution to this? I tried exporting in Illustrator to every possible format and then importing to Corel but nothing solved my problem.
I was wondering with cs6 whether it would finally be possible to assign gradients on stroke by pen pressure so you can do stuff like darken lines by pressure just like a real pencil for example.
I would like to know how to prevent the position of a gradient from being shifted when I crop it with one of the pathfinder tools. For example, I have a gradient that is centered on a panel that I want to crop, however when I crop it the gradient-center is shifted up!  Pre-crop = centered gradient Post-crop = off-centered gradient  I tried expanding the appearance of the gradient, however that is not a viable solution since it just turns the gradient into a set number of concentric circles.
I have applied simple gradients to shapes. When I try to select the object with the direct selection tool, it selects paths made from the gradient, not the object itself.
When I drop a swatch color on a gradient, it doesn't link to the swatch color like in a solid fill.Nevermind the UI inconsistency with this behavior, since Adobe probably doesn't care, but how do I get around this? Â Creating a Swatch from the gradient is not a solution for me, as I use the same base color in different gradients.
I create a logo in Illustrator. It is 2 colors, black and pantone 287. The gradient is only with the blue color. I save the file as a EPS. I place the EPS into another program, and generate a new EPS file with all the elements and type combined. My printer requires that all the fonts be converted to outline so I open the EPS again in Illustrator. The logo with the gradients has been converted to CMYK and the gradients now appear in the LINKS panel but they are not editable.  Why is this happening? How can I preserve the EPS so that I don't have to manually replace the converted gradient logo EVERY time I have to make a new EPS file?
I've been trying to make consistent gradients for a while now with no success. What I would like to do is make one gradient - say a dark red to light red - and then have a way to change the colors of that gradient without having to search for the correct hex colors for each one. So say I do the red gradient, then if there was some way to overlay something over it to change the colors instead of trying to find them myself. Â I know you can do this in Photoshop, but I haven't figured out how to do it in AI. Perhaps there's an easier way I just haven't found yet. I've spent a long time trying to make gradients of different shades (reds, blues, etc.), but the problem is getting each color of the gradient to be about equal to the other ones.
I am trying to apply multiple gradients to a leaf, or to any other object for that matter. Along the protruding edges I would like to apply a short gradient that points inward. I would like to repeat this gradient to every protruded edge, but each gradient would have to be manipulated independently. I have tried to do this using the Appearance Panel, by duplicating the fill. This works just fine but because the gradients are on different layers I can only see one gradient at a time, no way to see them all together.  The pic below is just an example, the colors/design are irrelevent.  When I try to move the gradient itself it seems to always jump back to where I picked it up, I can't place it exactly where I would like. As well, how can I control the wide of the gradient? As you can see in the pic, the protruding edges are quite narrow so the gradient should cover just that portion of the leaf.
I jumped to CS6 from CS3 and am a bit confused. I create graphics for stock imagery and it is important to minize the amount of shapes. I created my first image with CS6 that has several gradients and my file is enormous because when I viewed it with "Overprint view" it showed that all gradients consisted of several paths contained in a clip group.
I've found this tutorial on adding multiple gradients to form a glassy text [URL]....and I never knew you could create multiple gradients on one object. Â I can only manage to apply one gradient. On the tutorial it sounds easy to just draw a gradient, then draw another. However it is not that simple; I draw a gradient, then I attempt to draw the second, and it just moves the first gradient. Â How does one draw multiple gradients on the same object?
I'm struggling to create gradients for screen printing purposes. The artwork will be printed on 12oz canvas using 3-4 pantone spot colors. Â 1) if I fill an object with a single Pantone color, create a mesh gradient from it using a variety of different opacity settings, say 100%, 50% and 25%, then play around with the mesh handles to produce a pleasant, mixed background, will a gradient of this type work for screen printing? I don't know if a gradient of this type will require halftones, as a linear or radial gradient would. Â 2) it's my understanding that when you prepare artwork for screen printing using spot colors, each color should be on its own layer. In an attempt to add highlights or shadows to an object, if I copy an object and paste it in front of itself, then apply a gradient using another Pantone spot color, say Pantone Process Black(100% to 0% opacity), does it matter what the blending mode is? Obviously you'll get different results based on the option you choose, but again, I'm concerned here only with screen printing. I can then place the gradient on the Black layer. Â The problem is that I'm familiar with off-set printing, and apparently gradients have to be converted into halftones when screen printing, so I'm trying to figure out the best way of creating shadows and highlights.
I work for a large format printing company. We receive thousands of files every year from many different designers. We started to notice that gradients would drop out of some PDFs when opening them in Illustrator but they would preview fine when opened in Acrobat. I searched high and low for an explanation for this glitch. The only response I received is "Stop opening exported PDFs in Illustrator." The downfall with these workarounds: all spot colors located in the gradients will convert to CMYK mixes. I'm still researching to see if there is a way to keep spot colors intact in these areas.  A little back story: InDesign is converting the gradients into something called NChannel. It enables more accurate handling of color blending by including additional dot gain and color mixing info. Both InDesign and Acrobat have the ability to display these elements whereas Illustrator, from what I’m finding, does not. Which is why we’re seeing gradient elements drop out when opened in Illustrator.  Workaround for CMYK Gradients Open PDF exported from INDD in Acrobat Go to Tools > Print Production > Convert Colors Object Type: Smooth Shade (this tells Acrobat to hone in on Gradients only) Color Type: DeviceCMYK Check Embed next to Conversion Profile (should be SWOP) Expand Document Colors on the right and Select DeviceCMYK in Color Spaces then click ok Save the PDF
I'm working in CS3 and was trying out different tutorials on how to create realistic water drops and bubbles, such as  [URL]  but when I fill a shape with a gradient and change the blend mode to screen, the entire object goes white (I did put a darker shape as a background behind the gradient so that it would show)
Just as it states, how do I add 2, 3, even four gradients to one object. Each gradient will have some level of transparency to it. Â I need it to work similiar to: masking a layer in photoshop, and then using gradients to "chip away" pieces of the layer. I suppose I could just use opacity mask in AI, but I didnt think of that until now. Anywho now I'm curious, can you do this with multiple gradients in AI? Â I tried doing the basic "add fill" option then setting my gradients, but it doesnt preserve the transparency correctly.
I am working with Cs6 (Windows 7). I am trying to apply a gradient fill to an object, but don't know how to get the swatches to show colors. All I have is graytones. How do I load the color swatches? I do have the gradients and swatches open in the tools panel, but the swatches is just empty.Â
I have applied a 3D>Extrude and Bevel on my text. Now problem is that when doing it, my border(part that is extruded) causes a color banding, since it rasterizes the gradients. See my image below. Â How do I take away those nasty lines?
I'm trying to inverse all gradients within a document using Javascript. I can't find the property to call to inverse them in any of the PDF's I have, and I'm having trouble calling gradients in general I can't even rename them at the moment.
