When the Color book type is set to Targeted color book, it takes into account the value of the spot color(s) selected under the selected target area which is accessible by pressing the Choose targets button.

The colors available are the ones included in the document or added in the spot color window by the user.

Once the colors have been selected, 2 Variation types are available in the Steps section: Device and LCH. In both modes, the swatch of the targeted color appears with a clipped corner in the created PDF.

The clipped corner is only visible in the PDF file and not available in the preview.

Device variation mode

When the Variation type is set to Device mode, it takes into account the ink value used by the profile to reproduce the color. It will then make variations based on this value.

The following options appear:

Steps

• Range: +/- (%): maximum value of the ink variation. To get the global variation: add the range to the initial value and you will get the maximal ink value; subtract the range to the initial value and you will get the minimal ink value. Over 100% and under 0% samples will not be created.

  Example

  If the initial value of ink is 35% and the range is 4.0, then the samples will be between 31% and 39%. This calculation is applied to each ink.

• Samples per direction: the number of samples determines how many intermediate values will be created between the initial value and the one of its limit. The values are regularly placed with the same distance between them.

  Example

  Keep the same initial value: 35% and the same limits: 31% and 39%. Select 2 as the number of samples per direction. You will have 31% and 33% for the lower values and 37% and 39% for the higher ones. So this ink will take the following values: 31%, 33%, 35%, 37% and 39%.

  The number of samples do not provide the total number of swatches but only the number of values an ink can achieve. The total number of samples will depend on the number of ink mixing too.

• Ink Mixing: number of inks that can be mixed at the same time and according to the defined combinations.
• Combinations: choice of the inks that will be able to vary from their initial value mixed with another ink. Clicking the […] button opens the Choose allowed ink mix window.

Choose allowed ink mix

By default, all combinations are allowed. Several actions are available:

• Excluded and Allowed: these columns indicate the ink mix that will be excluded or allowed. The arrows allow you to move one combination from one column to the other.

    Info

  If inks such as Orange and Green are defined for the current profile, all combinations that can be made with them will also be available.

• All selects all combinations while None deselects them.
• CMYK + N: all CMYK and NColor ink combinations are selected whereas NColor only combinations are not.

  Example

  If the mode is CMYKOG: CM, CY, CK, CO, CG, MY, MK, MO, MG, YK, YO, YG, KO, KG will be selected whereas OG will not be selected.

• CMY + N: all CMY and NColor ink couples are selected whereas only Ncolor couples are not selected.

  Example

  If the mode is CMYKOG: CM, CY, CK, CO, CG, MY, MK, MO, MG, YK, YO, YG, KO, KG will be selected whereas OG will not be selected.

• Current selection: shows the current selection. The desired ink mix can be manually entered here using capitals and the combinations will automatically be calculated. Couples, triplets, or quadruplets can also be entered divided with a space, a coma, or a “/”.
• Cancel: closes the window without saving the changes.
• OK: saves the changes and then closes the window.

Labels

• Display Lab: unsupported option.
• Display components: displays the value of each ink as a percentage.
• Display decimal: displays the value with the first decimal.
• Display swatch names: for the initial color: it’s named as the assigned color in the spot color management window. For the other swatches, it’s named for its component values.

Example

We choose the Pantone 137C for this example with a CMYK mode. The range has been set up at 2.0% and the number of samples is 2. The max ink mixing is at the maximum.

Here is the result:

• The sample with the clipped corner is the target color.
• The number of samples that have been created is not the maximum that could have been reached with another color. For this example the black ink was at 0% so it could only vary with higher values. Applying the same principle the cyan ink was initially at 1.2 so it could have taken only one lower value and the yellow ink was at 99.9% so it could only vary with lower values.

LCH variation mode

When the Variation type is set to the LCH mode, the targeted color LAB values are obtained from the ICC profile and are then converted into LCH to allow the user to create variations of the LCH value.

The following options appear:

Steps

• L: “Lightness” value in positive units from 0 (black) to 100 (white).
• C: “Chroma” value in positive units from 0 (gray) to 100 (maximal saturation).
• H: Hue value in degree and representing a hue from the color wheel. The value can be from -359 to 359, the limit is 360. If a higher number is entered, it will automatically change to 360.

When Make packs is selected in the swatches area under the Layout tab, the pack creation follows these rules:

• L values vary from one column to the next one so the number of columns in each pack depends on the number of L values.
• C values vary from one line to the next one so the number of lines in each pack depends on the number of C values.
• H values vary from one pack to the next one so the number of packs depends on the number of H values.

Labels

• Display LAB: displays the LAB value of each swatch.
• Display components: unsupported option.
• Display decimal: displays the value with the first decimal.
• Display swatch names: for the initial color: it’s named as an assigned color in the spot color management window. For the other swatches: it’s named as its LCH value.

Example

We choose a CMYK mode and the Pantone 137C as targeted color.

The number of L values is 1 with a 1.0 distance.

The number of C values is 1 with a 1.0 distance.

The number of H values is 1 with a 1° distance.

Here is the result:

• The sample with the clipped corner is the target color: Pantone 137C.
• L variations are on the columns, C variations on the lines and the H ones on packs.
• Values are displayed with the first decimal to get a higher precision.

Printing Targeted color books

LCH variation type

When you print an LCH Targeted color book, a modified output profile is embedded in the color book PDF. In the Colors window of the Print module, under the Color Management tab, the embedded profile must be used together with the specified Rendering. The Spot color module is not used at this point.

Device variation type

When you print a Device Targeted color book, a modified output profile is embedded in the color book PDF. In the Colors window of the Print module, under the Color Management tab, the embedded profile must be used but the Rendering will be ignored, as the printing will apply the device-specific CMYK Profile.

Specific case with NColor mode

When printing with an NColor mode, we go through a CMYK or RGB profile in a first step, then to a predefined separation CMYK > CMYKXX (or RGB > CMYKXX) in a second step. So there is simply no 6-color ICC profile to embed.

However, this has no importance as the color book file is still printed in Direct NColor mode, bypassing all color management. You just need to leave enabled the Direct NColor printing in the Miscellaneous tab of the Colors window. As a result, the printed patches have exactly the same components as in the color book.