The Spot Setup panel allows you to manage a range of spot colors, including traditional options like Pantone, as well as technical separations such as metallic inks, white underlays, and other specialty colors.
NOTE: Settings added to the spot color lists apply to all jobs printed using the selected media. They affect how spot colors are processed, displayed, and printed.
Preferences (File menu)
You can adjust your preferences from the File menu. Here, you can choose whether Delta E calculations use the CIE 1976 or CIE 2000 standard, and set the tolerance level that determines when an out-of-gamut warning is triggered.
Override Spot Colors
To add a spot color, click + to open the Custom Color window.
This window displays the mapped in-gamut color along with the Delta E value showing the color difference. You can manually adjust the color by editing the Lab values or using the CMYK sliders (or CMYKOV sliders if an appropriate ECG profile is available).
To remove a spot color, click -. A warning message asks you to confirm the deletion.
After a spot color has been added, right-click it to open more options. You can rename the color, delete it, replace it with an in-gamut color if it is out of gamut, change the color values, or generate a Spot Variations Chart.
Custom Color
Changing a color opens the same dialog used to add a spot color, but lets you update the color name and values. If the spot color was originally added with Lab values, the original color shows the values used when it was first added. Otherwise, it shows the values before the latest edit. A warning triangle is shown if the color is out of gamut, and a pencil icon is shown if the color has been edited.
When adding or changing a Lab color that is out of gamut, Smart Media Manager shows how far out of gamut it is. If you accept the change, the color is replaced with an in-gamut device color.
Import Spot Colors
To import a list of spot colors from a .tcb or .cxf file, click Import. This opens the Import Spot Colors dialog, where you can browse for the file and select the specific colors you want to add.
Once imported, all spot colors from the TCB or CXF file will be displayed in a list, as shown below. Any out-of-gamut colors are marked with a warning triangle. Hovering over the triangle displays the Delta E value, indicating how far the color is from the printable gamut.
All selected colors are imported. Out-of-gamut colors are brought into gamut, and Lab colors are converted to device colors.
Right-clicking a selected color provides several options: Rename Color, Change Color, Replace with In-Gamut Color, and Delete Color.
To export your spot colors as a .tcb file, click Export TCB.
Ignored Spots
This pane lets you specify spot colors that should be excluded from printing—for example, technical spot colors such as dielines that are used for layout purposes only.
Click + in the Ignored Spot Colors section and enter the spot color name.
To remove a spot color from the ignore list, select it and click -.
Spot Variations Chart
The Spot Variations Chart gives printing technicians a structured way to fine-tune spot colors and improve the final color match.
The process begins by printing a reference patch of the original spot color, along with a series of adjacent patches that incorporate subtle variations of cyan, magenta, or yellow process inks. These variations help simulate alternative ink mixes.
The technician compares the printed patches to the target color reference. Once the closest match is identified, the spot color is adjusted to reflect the corresponding CMYK values of the selected patch.
Users can fine-tune the mix by adding or subtracting up to three inks from an extended gamut ink set—excluding black—for greater flexibility in color correction.
Select a spot color from the list, right-click it, and select Spot Variations Chart:
Select the checkbox for each spot color that needs a Spot Variations Chart. Choose the patch size, then select up to three colorants and set the step, up, and down values for each one. A preview of the first page shows the color variations based on the selected parameters. Click Print to send the PDF to the SPC waiting queue.
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Patch size: large, medium, or small.
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Step: a value between 0.1% and 10.0% representing the variation for each step.
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Up: an integer between 0 and 2 representing the total steps above the current value.
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Down: an integer between 0 and 2 representing the total steps below the current value.
Click Close to close the window.
Check the PDF in the SPC waiting queue.
The maximum number of patches is 256. If this limit is exceeded, no preview is shown, the Print button is disabled, and an error message is displayed:
If this happens, adjust the settings to reduce the number of patches.