When you print a Publisher 2000 publication file as composite PostScript, the colors in that file are stored using the RGB (Red, Green, and Blue) color values. If you are trying to create color separations from a Publisher file and you are not using Publisher's built-in color separation features, the program you are using must be able to separate RGB composite PostScript.

If you click Commercial Printing Tools on the Tools menu and then click Color Printing, you see the Color Printing dialog box. This dialog box controls how Publisher handles color separations. If you click Composite RGB, the color separation tools of Publisher are not available. If you click Process colors (CMYK), Publisher prints CMYK color separations when you use its color separation feature. If you click Spot Color(s), Publisher prints black and one or two spot colors when you use its color separation feature. However, none of these settings change how Publisher generates composite PostScript; the color is always in RGB.

When you print a single-page publication file as color separations (instead of composite), you get a multi-page black and white PostScript file. Each page represents what you will print on one plate.

Publisher 2000 has a variety of color separation tools built in to it. It includes features which are not available in many other desktop publishing programs, such as the ability to print CMYK (Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, and Black) color separations from RGB images. These tools only work, however, when you print separations from Publisher, instead of printing composite.

If you try to create color separations from Publisher-generated composite PostScript, your results will depend on your software's ability to separate RGB PostScript.