Can we have better gradients when working in CMYK to Pantone?
Have better control with gradients when working with spot colors to CMYK. When using the normal gradient tool and working with Pantone colors to CMYK you get a nasty grey gradient. Currently you have to create two shapes, extend on of the gradients and set it to multiply. The new 2026 gradient dither feature does not fix this problem.
Eric Willmann
shared this idea
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If you open Window > Separations Preview and checks what Ai does when mixing a spot color with CMYK, you’ll see it does it all right: fading the spot at the same rate as the process colors get denser. This is how it’d print. If you want something to be multiplied (or rather overprinted, if we mean print media), you’d need to make this choice intentionally. Not ALL the gradients with Spot to Process will look good if this option just gets added into the panel... blend CMYK 0-0-100-0 into Reflex Blue using both methods and compare. Plus, it’s important to remember GPU Preview handles these colors pretty badly.
At the same time, export images with Overprint preview enabled would be a nice thing to have... it works, but not all the time in all cases, I remember discussing it here and elsewhere... will add links later.
Anyway, 'better looking gradients' is tough, but this topic certainly requires thinking over it. Thanks for rasing it.
