Preparing artwork for color separating

Before you print color separations from Illustrator, it’s a good idea to perform the following prepress tasks:

Set up color management, including calibrating your monitor and selecting an Illustrator Color Setting.
Soft-proof how color will appear on the intended output device. Choose Window > Separations Preview to preview how the color separations will look.
If the document is in RGB mode, choose File > Document Color Mode > CMYK Color to convert it to CMYK Mode.
If your artwork contains color blends, optimize them so that they print smoothly (without discrete bands of color).
If your artwork requires trapping, set up appropriate overprinting and trapping.
If your artwork contains areas of transparent, overlapping colors, preview which areas will be affected by flattening and note which flattening options you want to use.

Use the Live Color dialog box to globally convert and reduce colors. For example, if you want to convert a process color document to a 2‑color spot document use the Assign portion of Live Color, and specify which colors you want and how they are assigned to existing colors.