This article is about the Spot Colors module, in the modules panel, which allows you to control how each spot color is treated during printing, from ignoring non-essential to simulating them accurately with process inks or specialized color models like Lab values.
The Spot Colors module is an advanced feature designed for the efficient management of spot colors in files. Spot colors, typically used to denote specific special inks (such as metallics or fluorescents), need careful handling during pre-press and production to ensure accurate color reproduction among other practical applications:
- Brand Color Management: When handling files that contain branded spot colors, use the simulation or Pantone matching feature to ensure accurate color reproduction.
- Cutting and Contour Jobs: For files that include cutting guides or contour lines, rely on the module’s ability to automatically ignore these spot colors, ensuring they don’t appear in the final print.
- Ink Optimization: Use the spot color-to-process ink simulation to reduce the need for expensive spot inks, simulating colors with CMYK blends for more cost-effective printing.
Module features
This module offers a comprehensive set of tools to check, map, and manipulate these spot colors before sending a job to print:
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Check Spot Colors: The module automatically detects and lists all spot colors embedded in a PDF/AI file, or separated TIFF channels, which allows you to review them before deciding how to map each color to specific print actions.
Info
For PDF files, a maximum of 118 spot colors can be fine-tuned per page.
- Spot color mapping options.
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Search and Filter Spot Colors: The module includes a search bar that allows you to filter the spot colors by name.
This is particularly useful for large files with multiple spot colors, as you can quickly locate specific colors based on part of or the full name, ensuring efficient navigation and selection. -
Reset Channel Mapping: If any adjustments have been made to the spot color mapping (e.g., from simulation or manual assignment), the reset button allows you to revert all changes to the module's initial best guess mapping.
This is useful when experimenting with different configurations or when a previous setup needs to be discarded.
Spot color mapping options
For every detected spot color, you can choose to ignore, simulate (process, Lab, or auto), blend directly, or overwrite it.
Starting with V2, the module provides an estimated "Best Guess" for spot colors that are unavailable in the library. Instead of defaulting to unprintable values, users will receive a "Simulated" approximation based on the preview color.
Info
The module processes preview colors by directly setting Lab values or converting RGB and CMYK values to Lab using ICC profiles, defaulting to sRGB.icc and CalderaCmyk.icc, respectively.
Ignore Before Printing
This option is used to exclude specific spot colors from the print job. When selected, the spot color is removed from the final output, ensuring it does not interfere with the print.
Good to know
The module automatically ignores certain industry-standard spot colors, such as those named "Cut", "Contour", or "Die". These colors are generally used for cutting guides or contour lines and are not meant to be printed. This behavior applies regardless of the letter case.
Simulate the Spot Color
This feature allows you to simulate a spot color using different methods:
Process Ink Simulation
The spot color is simulated by blending output inks. You can manually adjust the ink percentages (Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, and Black, in this example) to fine-tune the output to match the desired color.
Lab Values Simulation
Info
Requires that your preset has an ICC output profile loaded.
Lab values provide a precise color model based on human perception, ensuring an accurate simulation of the spot color.
When Lab simulation is used, a color preview is displayed at the bottom of the interface, allowing you to visualize the final color before printing.
The Lab simulation comes pre-configured with the 50 most commonly used Pantone colors.
Auto Mode
Warning
This mode can only be used when working with PDF/AI files.
In auto mode, the Adobe PDF Printing Engine will handle the color simulation.
Direct Blend
Here, you can blend a spot color into an output ink. The process will add ink over the computed output.
Blending a spot color with process inks is useful for creating custom color effects, softening intense spot colors, and reducing ink costs while maintaining design flexibility.
Overwrite Channel
Here, you can overwrite a spot color into an output ink. The process will replace the computed output with the original spot color.
Overwriting a spot color fully replaces it with another color, ensuring the correct ink is used when a spot color is unavailable, for example, or when you need to standardize colors for brand consistency or error correction.
Known limitations
We are working on improving the following limitations in future versions:
- Unknown TIFF channels are currently mapped to a “Select below” strategy that will not print (this is the case for special inks such as Varnish, ...).
- Unknown PDF spot colors are currently mapped to the “Simulated: Auto” strategy that will print those colors (this is the case for special inks such as White, Varnish, ...).
- We are also working so that the new Spot Color module can be used in combination with the Knockout feature when working with PDF files.
We are working on improving the following limitations in future versions:
- Some PDF files (containing patterns, Lab-based spot colors, ...) can not be loaded.
- Memory consumption is not limited and can lead to a significant drop in performance, or even to a crash in the case of large or complex PDF files ( particularly with many transparencies).
- Decreased performance when using asymmetric resolutions and PDFs.
- Unknown TIFF channels are currently mapped to a “Default” strategy that will not print (this is the case for special inks such as White, Varnish, ...).
- Unknown PDF spot colors are currently mapped to the “Simulated: Auto” strategy that will print those colors (this is the case for special inks such as White, Varnish, ...).
- We are also working so that the new Spot Color module can be used in combination with the Knockout feature when working with PDF files.