You can use PSD Import to change the color, shade, and ink solidity of any spot color, mask, or alpha channel you created in Photoshop. You can assign spot colors to channels that overprint composite images, and you can specify solidity for displaying channels on-screen and printing color composites. (The solidity value is not relevant when you are printing color separations.)

Channels specified as mask channels in Photoshop are imported differently than channels specified as spot colors. In Photoshop, mask channels are assigned an opacity setting, while spot channels are assigned a solidity setting. Since PSD Import supports ink solidity, mask channels are imported with a 0% ink solidity. To see mask channels in imported PSDs, you need to manually turn on the mask channels in the Channels tab of the PSD Import palette. Spot-color channels, on the other hand, retain the solidity setting saved in the PSD file and are mapped to QuarkXPress colors by default.

Use the Channel Options dialog box to modify the color, shade, or ink solidity of pixels in a spot-color or alpha channel. To display the Channel Options dialog box, simply double-click a channel in the Channels pane of the PSD Import palette (Window menu).