illustrator filter printed as spot, not cmyk

Hi

I'm having problems with a print process that I'm really hoping someone knows how to fix. I have a business card design compiled in illustrator CS3. The business card and the client's company logo use the colours black and Pantone Orange 021. Problem is, there's a graduated transparency filter behind the company logo that seems to be set to CMYK and unable to print as spot.

Basically, the cards background is solid Pantone 021, the logo is also solid Pantone 021, so a graduated tint (like a reversed shadow - light instead of dark) has been placed between the logo and the background so that the logo shows up on the background of the same colour.

But the graduated transparency only prints as CMYK, whereas it is required to print in a graduated tint of Pantone 021.

Can anyone tell me how to get it to print as the spot colour?

Many thanks

Just found out that the graduated tint behind the logo is actually an "Effect" called "Radial Blur". The effect has been set to 100% zoom and at best quality. Do "effects" only print cmyk/rgb or can they print in spot?

Thanks again

Well, I couldn't solve the issue and couldn't get advice on the subject, but after a couple of days worth of attempts at getting the file to PDF for print correctly I came across a fix... Turn everything to process black and PDF it ready for the printer who will (obviously) print it in the correct colour scheme. By doing so, the problem lines disappear and the file is perfect.

I assume this means that it is a fault within illustrator CS3 as using a spot colour to should have no effect whatsoever on a transparency filter screwing up. Or maybe effect filters 100% dependent on the files use of process colours.

I'm just glad to have sorted it out.

It's not recommended that you use transparency with Pantones. Try to stick to tints where possible.

Sorry, I hadn't been checking in so much lately. I could have helped you out by outputting you a good, working pdf out of ArtPro. Glad you're all fixed up!