This Palette is designed to produce a multichannel tiff from a separated AVA design document which can then be opened by Adobe® Photoshop®™ as editable Adobe® Photoshop®™ spot colour channels. The produced tiff format also retains a representative colour of each layer in the specific colourway, making it easier to begin re-colouring in Adobe® Photoshop®™.

The steps performed in the ‘Alpha Channel Tiff’ Palette

This Palette adds a blank, 8-bit layer to the design document, placing it at the top of the Layers Palette order. The blank layer is used as a required mode when imported into Adobe® Photoshop®™ (see more details below) leaving the actual separated layers in the design to be distributed as channels. A save dialog is automatically presented once the layer preparation is finished. As the Palette physically changes the make-up of the design layers, a history make and restore step is also included at the start and finish of the Palette respectively. This ensures that the design restores back to its original state after the tiff has been saved.

Prior to running this palette

The format of the Tiff produced with this Palette requires specific settings to be chosen in the Tiff Export Dialog Window upon saving. Please go to AVA > Settings and choose the File Format Settings option. Select the ‘Export’ tab and ensure that ‘Do not show Tiff export dialog’ is NOT ticked. This will then show the required Tiff Export Dialog option upon running the Palette.

How to use the ‘Alpha Channel Tiff’ Palette

1. Open a design document ensuring only spot layers are contained in the Layers Palette Window.
2. Click the Alpha Channel Tiff Palette to run it.
3. After a few seconds a Save Window will appear. Navigate to where you wish the tiff to be saved, ensure that the format option is set to ‘Tiff’ then click ‘Save’.
4. In the Tiff Export Dialog window that appears, select the following options:
   
5. Click ‘OK’ to save the tiff file.

Opening the tiff file into Adobe® Photoshop®™

As the tiff file is saved with an extra, blank 8-bit spot layer at the top of the layer order, this will open in Grayscale mode in Adobe® Photoshop®™. If that sounds a little worrying then fear not. Navigate to the Adobe® Photoshop®™ channels window where you will find the original spot colour separations as channels, ready for re-colouring.

Why grayscale mode and can I amend to another mode?

The extra 8-bit layer (grayscale) is only included because Adobe® Photoshop®™ takes the first given layer in the tiff as it’s colour mode. If you prefer the mode to be another, such as RGB for example, just simply change it in Adobe® Photoshop®™. There will be no change to the spot colour channels.

You could also adjust the type of blank layer which is added within the workings of the Palette itself, to save you manually changing in Adobe® Photoshop®™ each time:

1. Hold ⌥ (option key) and click on the Palette to enter the editing window.
2. Select the ‘Create Layer’ entry in the list of steps and note its position in the order. Then press and hold ⌘ (command key) and press ⌫ (backspace key) to delete the entry.
3. Add a new image layer in your desired colour space for the Adobe® Photoshop®™ mode (RGB or CMYK). A new layer will be added and selected at the bottom of the Layers Palette order.
4. Now double click the ‘Document Handler’ icon located in the Design Window tool bar to reveal the list of individual handler options.
5. Click and drag the ‘Create Layer’ option over the Palette editing window and drop on to the position of the previously deleted entry in Step 2.