How do you get a % tint of a CMYK colour without using transparency.
I use lens transparency then sample the colour, there must be a better way?
TIA
A few ways.
If you are OK with winging it, you can hold down the ctrl key and click the color white from your swatches to make a lighter tint. You can hold the ctrl key down and click on the black swatch to darken. This is OK if one is not needing precision.
Another way is to double-click on the document palette swatch for the object (assuming it's there). Make it a spot color, then the tint is adjustable. If your output is to a process PDF, make sure to convert the spots to process in the publish to pdf dialog. Or, once done you can also make that spot color into process again.
You can also edit the color, switch to the Models tab that pops up when you double-click on a palette color, and wing it by moving the oh so little marker of the present color to the upper left, which is white. Just drag it form its present position in a straight line to that upper left corner.
Those are the only means I know of.
Let's everyone who would like an intuitive, easier process for adjusting tints raise our hands...