EtherShare Admin features a spot color editor which enables the user to define a preview color for a given spot color name. This allows PrintPreview and ImageServer to include spot color objects in the composite preview.
4.1 Setting up the spot color editor
Defining spot color names
A list of spot colors can be created as follows:
-> In EtherShare Admin open
Spot Colors from the
Lists menu.
Fig. 3: The Spot Colors window
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The
Spot Colors window (see figure
3), that may already contain the names of some previously defined spot colors, opens. For the definition of a new spot color in the spot color editor, CMYK or LabD50 values are accepted.
-> Select
File > New from the menu bar of the EtherShare Admin.
The
Spot Colors definition window opens:
Fig. 4: The Spot Colors definition window
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, Select the appropriate color space in which you want to enter the CMYK or LabD50 values of your spot color from the
Color Space pop-up menu. After entering the values in the corresponding fields specify a name for the defined spot color and confirm the settings by clicking on the
Save button (see figure
4).
The
Revert button sets all entries back to default or, if you have only modified an entry, back to the last saved version. After closing the window the new spot color appears in the list of the
Spot Colors window (compare figure
3).
4.2 Accurate spot colors using ColorSync/ICC
The following figures show the ColorSync profile settings for an RGB monitor (figure
5) and a CMYK (figure
6) printer which are used to represent accurate previews in the
Spot Colors definition window.
Fig. 5: ColorSync profile for RGB
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Fig. 6: ColorSync profile for CMYK
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Suitable profiles can be chosen in the
ColorSync dialog:
-> Open
Control Panels > ColorSync from the Apple menu and assign appropriate profiles from the pop-up menu to the output devices that you want to use.
These chosen profiles are displayed in the
System Profile Settings section of the
Spot Colors definition window. Figure
7 shows an example where the spot color "Gray" has been defined in the LabD50 color space. The color patch displays the accurate color according to the monitor profile. The CMYK values displayed below the color patch indicate how the LabD50 color is converted for printing.
Important: Make sure to use the appropriate monitor and printer profiles, which can be created with ICC profiling tools. Incorrect, inaccurate or generic profiles (e.g. Apple's default profiles coming with Mac OS 9) will lead to inaccurate results!
Figure
8 shows an example where the spot color "Gray" has been defined in the CMYK color space, according to the selected printer profile. The color patch displays the accurate color according to the printer and monitor profiles. The LabD50 values displayed below the color patch represent the CMYK color in the LabD50 color space.
Since colors are best and most reliably represented in the LabD50 color space it is reasonable to enter the color in Lab values which have been determined by a spectrophotometer, e.g. by "GretagMacbeth".
Note: To make profile changes in the ColorSync dialog valid, the ColorSync dialog and the Spot Colors definition window must be closed. The new ColorSync profiles will be used at reopening the Spot Colors definition window.
