Getting Artwork Ready for Maintop

In order to RIP a file successfully in Maintop, your artwork must already have the added channels or layers for the white and adhesive inks.

Step 1 :

Download the Cobra23 file that is a setup template with color bars and the width pre-set. Click the link to download.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1DwAu3tHYiV2b7I0L_a7E9NMldCThK1eY/view?usp=sharing

Open Adobe Illustrator, open the Cobra23 template and add in your artwork. 

Select File, then Place, then select your artwork. Copy and paste images to your layout required. Keep in mind if you need to add more images you can use  the Artboard Tool

to resize the artboard to be longer. DO NOT INCREASE WIDTH, only length. Pull down with your mouse with the artboard tool selected to increase the size of the artboard to add more images.

Using the selection tool, make sure the color bars are re-sized to fit the current artboard.

Select the tool arrow, top left dark arrow, then highlight just the color bars, then use your mouse to drag up or down to shorten or lengthen the bars to match the artboard.

Select File, then Save As...Then choose PDF format. Save file to your drive.

Next open Adobe Photoshop, then open the PDF saved.

While holding in the CTRL key, select with your mouse the square box to your right hand side in the layers area. Small white box in the bottom panel. This will select the artwork.

You should see the artwork with dancing marks around the image. This means the image is selected.

In the top menu bar Click Select, then Modify, then Contract. Select 2 Pixels then hit okay

button. In the same area as the layers tab, right next to that is the Channels tab. Select that tab and add in a new spot channel. Select the three lines in the upper corner of the Channels tab and select Add a New Spot Channel.

Rename the Channel to Capital (W1) This will be the white channel.

Make sure solidity is at 100 % and hit the okay button. As you can see its now been

added to the layers list.

Next go back to the layers tab once again and re-select the box again.

While holding in the CTRL key, select with your mouse the square box to your right hand side in the layers area. Small white box in the bottom panel. This will select the artwork.

You should see the artwork with dancing marks around the image. This means the image is selected.

In the top menu bar Click Select, then Modify, then Expand. Select 2 Pixels then hit okay

button.

In the same area as the layers tab, right next to that is the Channels tab. Select that tab

and add in a new spot channel once again. Select the three lines in the upper corner of the Channels tab and select Add a New Spot Channel. 

Rename the Channel to Capital (W2) This will be the adhesive channel.

Make sure solidity is at 100 % and hit the okay button. As you can see its now been

added to the layers list.

Lastly lets save the new artwork. Select File then Save As, then select TIFF format, to save

the artwork. Now you have your white and adhesive layers ready for Maintop.