For the Fixup to do whit it promises, no special circumstance are required.

Figure 1: Left: The Basic Settings tab in the dialog Create Spot Color Separation to Printed Objects; Right: The Advanced tab in the dialog Create Spot Color Separation to Printed Objects

Um einen Schmuckfarbauszug für druckende Objekte zu erzeugen, können folgende Optionen gewählt werden:

• Templates [1] – Settings that are selected in the dialog can be saved as a template and thus applied to other Articles/Print Items.

Basic Settings

• White Areas [2] –  in the selection menu, select whether or not white areas - pixel values with CMYK 0/0/0/0, RGB 255/255/255 and grayscale 0% - should be included in the print file to generate the Spot Color separation. Transparent areas are not included in any case. The following options are available:
  • exclude – white areas within a Print Item are not taken into account. Therefore, no Spot Color Separation is generated for this area.
  • include – white areas within a Print Item are taken into account. A Spot Color Separation is created for these areas.
• Adjust Size [3] – by entering the desired size, the spot color separation becomes larger ("+" values) or smaller ("-" values) than the printing object itself. For the Variable Content [7], select the desired placeholder - database field or user-defined field - from which the value for the size of the separation should be retrieved.
• Spot Color [4] – select a Spot Color from the selection menu with which the Spot Color channel should be created. All system-wide defined Spot Colors that can be output as a separation are available in the selection menu.
• Tonal Value [5] – the color value of the Spot Color Separation can be reduced by changing the slider or by entering the percentage values.
• Opacity [6] – determine the opacity of the Spot Color Separation by moving the slider or by entering the percentage values.

Advanced

• Accuracy [8] – in the selection menu, select how accurately the printing objects of the Print Item should be traced when creating the white separation. The more ornate the Print Items are, the more accurately they should be traced. Please note, however, that more accurate tracing also takes considerably more time. The following options are available:
  • Inaccurate (fastest) – the objects are traced less accurately - with a resolution of 800 dpi - but faster.
  • Standard (fast) – the objects are traced accurately - with a resolution of 1199 dpi - but still fast.
  • Accurate (slow) – the objects are traced very accurately - with a resolution of 2400 dpi - though the tracing is slower.
  • Variable Content [12] – select the desired placeholder - database field or user-defined field - from which the dpi value for the accuracy is to be taken. The following values must be found in the selected field so that the mode can be used:
    • 800
    • 1199
    • 2400

Figure 2: Values in the selected field for the option Accuracy

• Invert Spot Color [9] – by activating this option, a Spot Color Separation is created for the transparent object but not for the printing objects. As a result the user can create e.g. a white separation for a transparent background.
• Layer Name [10] – enter the name of the Layer on which the white separation should be created. If you do not want to create a separate Layer, remove the name from the input field. For the Variable Content [13], select the desired placeholder - database field or user-defined field - from which the value for the layer name should be retrieved.
• Conformity of Processing Steps according to ISO 19593-1 [11] – a white separation should be created by default according to ISO 19593-1 on the White layer in the White group of the White type. Further information on the ISO standard can be found in the description Processing Steps ISO 15931-1.

To experiment with this function, refer to the sample file "Sample_Create Spot Color Separation.pdf". The file contains a Print Item for which a Spot Color Separation should be created. The background is transparent.

After applying the Fixup, the file "Sample_Create Spot Color Separation_End.pdf" is created, where a white separation was created for the Print Item. The values from Figure 1 were used.

Figure 3: Left: initial file; Right: edited file for which a Spot Color Separation was created

Article update: Workflow 1.17.2 – 06/2024