Color Gradient: Pantone?

[jclements]

I hope this is not a "stupid" question.

Assume that you are using swatch colors from a Pantone color library.

I have an object with a solid pantone color.
I want to change this to a linear gradient, from white to the pantone color used for the solid fill.


Two questions:
If you are using Pantone colors, should gradients always blend from a Pantone color to a Pantone color?
I don't see a Pantone White swatch, if there isn't one then what?

[gwpriester]

John

As soon as you blend two pantone colors you defeat the idea of a spot color.

If you want to create a linear fill to white, use the Create Tint Of... function to create a lighter version of your solid color.

Oops. I see you are doing this in Illustrator. Well the same idea should be possible in Illustrator.

[jclements]

Thank you, Gary.

[gwpriester]

John

Here's a PDF exported from Xara that shows only one spot color in Acrobat

[Black Panther]

John, i´am just a beginner with Illy, but i hope i could help you with my answer.
For your first question:
Try dragging the Pantone color directly from the library or swatch palette to the little arrow slider underneath the gradient. please see attached image too.
2. question:
I dont think that you can only blend the gradient from Pantone color to pantone color, you can blend Pantone color with another color too. in this case White. and here is a link that show you how to create gradient from white to Pantone color.

http://sirisgraphics.com/adobe/illus...lustrator-cs5/

For the white color in Pantone, i have really no answer except like in the tut. you should create gradient from white to any color or the default gradient from black to white and then change the black to the Pantone color by dragging it on the slider.
Hope that help you.
BP

[jclements]

John

Here's a PDF exported from Xara that shows only one spot color in Acrobat

So this has sparked new questions, Gary.

When exporting to PDF from Xara, what PDF settings did you use?
In Acrobat Pro, how do you get to the Output Preview dialog?

[gwpriester]

I used the PDF/X export. In the latest Acrobat--they keep moving things around, it's under Tools.

You will see CMYK as well as the Pantone color. If you un-check CMYK you will see the Pantone color only in black which represents the printing plate for the spot color.

[jclements]

Thanks again.

Strange, a few times when I exported a Pantone gradient from a light tint to the untinted color, the outputted PDF had a gradient black in the middle. Now it I get the same results as you.

[jclements]

Panther, Vielen Dank!

[mwenz]

As soon as you blend two pantone colors you defeat the idea of a spot color.

I don't know what you really mean with the above statement. In the interest of clarity, you can blend two or more pantone colors in a gradient. Done it lots of times when a company desired to keep a job to two or three of their pantone colors in a design and the design lended itself for gradient elements.

And one of those colors can be white. However, if the design allows for say 2% color tint to a fuller tint of a single p-tone color, use it. Cases where one may need to use white is on clear media, colored paper, etc., where the opacity and color purity the white color adds is needed.

Take care, Mike