Equinox User Guide

Transcription

1 14.1 User Guide

2 Contents 1. Copyright Notice What is and Expanded Gamut Printing? About Expanded Gamut Printing and its Benefits in your Esko Applications Before You Start Making Sure your Press is Stable Choosing your Inks Inks Choice Guidelines Choosing your Printing Target Printing to G Printing to ISO, another Standard or a Custom Target Setting up your Color Database for If You Have an Automation Engine Server Setup in ArtPro Setup in PackEdge Setup in the Plug-in If You Don't Have an Automation Engine Server Setup in ArtPro Setup in PackEdge Setup in the Plug-in If You are Only Using the Plug-in Profiling your Press with the Profile Creator Converting Images with the Plug-in The Plug-in in Photoshop Converting an Image to Colors Gamut Expansion The Max Gamut Preset The High Gamut Preset The Mid Gamut Preset The Normal Preset The Normal Fleshtones Preset The Smooth Preset The Smooth Fleshtones Preset The Subtle Preset Creating a Custom Preset ii

3 Contents Importing a Custom Preset Editing a Custom Preset Deleting a Custom Preset Gamut Matching Rendering Intents Black Point Compensation...45 Separation Options The Maximum Black Preset The Preserve Black Preset Creating a Custom Preset Importing a Custom Preset Editing a Custom Preset Deleting a Custom Preset...52 The Preview Conversion Plug-in...52 Viewer About Viewer The Viewer window Creating an Device Link with the Plug-in Creating an Color Strategy with the Color Engine Pilot How to Create an Color Strategy Settings for CMYK Settings for Spot Color Linework Converting Files to Expanded Gamut Printing in ArtPro How to Convert your ArtPro File to Expanded Gamut Printing Settings for Input and Output Settings for CMYK Linework and Images Settings for Spot Color Linework and Images Converting Files to Expanded Gamut Printing in PackEdge How to Convert your File to Expanded Gamut Printing Settings for Input and Output Settings for CMYK Linework and Images Settings for Spot Color Linework and Images Automating your Conversion in Automation Engine Using the Convert Colors with task Glossary...99 iii

4 1 1. Copyright Notice Copyright 2016 Esko Software BVBA, Gent, Belgium All rights reserved. This material, information and instructions for use contained herein are the property of Esko Software BVBA. The material, information and instructions are provided on an AS IS basis without warranty of any kind. There are no warranties granted or extended by this document. Furthermore Esko Software BVBA does not warrant, guarantee or make any representations regarding the use, or the results of the use of the software or the information contained herein. Esko Software BVBA shall not be liable for any direct, indirect, consequential or incidental damages arising out of the use or inability to use the software or the information contained herein. The information contained herein is subject to change without notice. Revisions may be issued from time to time to advise of such changes and/or additions. No part of this document may be reproduced, stored in a data base or retrieval system, or published, in any form or in any way, electronically, mechanically, by print, photoprint, microfilm or any other means without prior written permission from Esko Software BVBA. This document supersedes all previous dated versions. PANTONE, PantoneLIVE and other Pantone trademarks are the property of Pantone LLC. All other trademarks or registered trademarks are the property of their respective owners. Pantone is a wholly owned subsidiary of X-Rite, Incorporated. Pantone LLC, All rights reserved. This software is based in part on the work of the Independent JPEG Group. Portions of this software are copyright The FreeType Project ( All rights reserved. Portions of this software are copyright 2006 Feeling Software, copyright Autodesk Media Entertainment. Portions of this software are copyright Daniel Veillard. All rights reserved. Portions of this software are copyright The Botan Project. All rights reserved. Part of the software embedded in this product is gsoap software. Portions created by gsoap are Copyright Robert A. van Engelen, Genivia inc. All rights reserved. Portions of this software are copyright The OpenSSL Project and Eric Young (eay@cryptsoft.com). All rights reserved. This product includes software developed by the Apache Software Foundation ( Adobe, the Adobe logo, Acrobat, the Acrobat logo, Adobe Creative Suite, Illustrator, InDesign, PDF, Photoshop, PostScript, XMP and the Powered by XMP logo are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Adobe Systems Incorporated in the United States and/or other countries. Microsoft and the Microsoft logo are registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and other countries. SolidWorks is a registered trademark of SolidWorks Corporation. Portions of this software are owned by Spatial Corp All Rights Reserved. JDF and the JDF logo are trademarks of the CIP4 Organisation. Copyright 2001 The International Cooperation for the Integration of Processes in Prepress, Press and Postpress (CIP4). All rights reserved. 4

5 The Esko software contains the RSA Data Security, Inc. MD5 Message-Digest Algorithm. Java and all Java-based trademarks and logos are trademarks or registered trademarks of Sun Microsystems in the U.S. and other countries. Part of this software uses technology by Best Color Technology (EFI). EFI and Bestcolor are registered trademarks of Electronics For Imaging GmbH in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. Contains PowerNest library Copyrighted and Licensed by Alma, Part of this software uses technology by Global Vision. ArtProof and ScanProof are registered trademarks of Global Vision Inc. All other product names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners. Correspondence regarding this publication should be forwarded to: Esko Software BVBA Kortrijksesteenweg 1095 B 9051 Gent info.eur@esko.com 5 1

6 2 2. What is and Expanded Gamut Printing? 2.1 About is Esko's unique color technology for expanded gamut printing (printing with a standardized set of more than 4 inks). It combines Esko's unique color algorithms and workflow expertise to bring unparalleled control of multi-color process to the printing industry. It is compatible with any 5, 6, or 7 inks of your choice. 2.2 Expanded Gamut Printing and its Benefits "Four color process" (CMYK) is capable of producing the limited range of colors represented by the triangle below. Spot colors have traditionally been used to achieve colors outside the CMYK gamut. However, printing with spot colors is not economical. It requires blending custom inks, cleaning and prepping the press decks for each job, and makes it impossible to gang items with unique colors on the same form. Adding extra colors between Cyan, Magenta and Yellow (an Orange or Red ink, a Green ink, and a Blue or Violet ink, as on the color hexagon below) expands the gamut and reduces the need for custom spot colors. 6

7 Additionally, images are more colorful and closer to the original. The press can use the same 7 inks for every job, resulting in important cost savings in the press room. 7 2

8 3 3. in your Esko Applications is integrated in several Esko applications, to make it easy to get the benefits of expanded gamut printing throughout your workflow. Use it the following way: 1. Make sure that your press is ready for printing with. It should be stable, have the right inks set up, and a quality target defined. See Before You Start on page Install the Esko applications you want to work with if you don't already have them, and make sure they all use the same color database. See Setting up your Color Database for on page Profile your press with the Profile Creator that accurately reflects your printing conditions. to get a multi-color press profile See Profiling your Press with the Profile Creatoron page 26 and the Profile Creator documentation. 4. Using that profile, convert a few test RGB or CMYK images with the plug-in. See Converting Images with the Plug-in on page Fine-tune your conversion settings for CMYK images and create an device link if desired. See Creating an Device Link with the Plug-in on page Use the Color Engine Pilot to make an color strategy, using the press profile you made in the Profile Creator, and the device link you made in the plug-in. See Creating an Color Strategy with the Color Engine Pilot on page With that color strategy, you are now ready to start converting colors with in the Esko application(s) of your choice: Use ArtPro to convert your graphic files to your colors on a Mac platform. See Converting Files to Expanded Gamut Printing in ArtPro on page 75. Use PackEdge to convert your graphic files to your colors on a Windows platform. See Converting Files to Expanded Gamut Printing in PackEdge on page 86. Use Automation Engine to automate the conversion of your files to your colors. See Automating your Conversion in Automation Engine on page You can also still use the plug-in to convert your RGB or CMYK images to your colors (to either match your original colors or expand the gamut to get more vivid images), within Adobe Photoshop. This does not require a color strategy.

9 See Converting Images with the Plug-in on page 27. You can work with some or all of these applications depending on your needs. For example, if you are usually working with ArtPro and printing in CMYK, and you only get the occasional file with spot colors that would benefit from expanded gamut printing, you can simply convert it within ArtPro as part of your prepress work. On the other hand, if you are working with large volume of files that typically include spot colors, you would probably benefit from setting up an Automation Engine workflow. 9 3

10 4 4. Before You Start Before you start profiling your press for expanded gamut printing, there are some preparatory steps you need to take: 1. Making sure your press is stable. 2. Choosing the inks you will use for printing with. 3. Defining the calibration curves and tolerances you want to use as your quality target. You can try and match your press output to either: a widely accepted standard (for example, you might want to achieve the dot gain specified by the GRACoL G7 specification), your custom desired dot gain and Delta E tolerances. 4.1 Making Sure your Press is Stable This is very important as press variation can have even more of an impact on your printed results than variation in the press profile. Dot Gain You should make sure your dot gain is stable and under control. Make sure you have some good initial dot gain curves (adapted to your press) set in the RIP when printing your profiling charts. We recommend you use a PressSync curve set for this (see the PressSync documentation for more information), so that once you have made the profile, you can update that curve set with the profile data. Gray Balance If you are printing towards G7, make sure your gray balance is good, and adapt your dot gain curves if needed to correct any color cast. 10

11 Tip: You can use a P2P test chart to measure both dot gain and gray balance. You can also make a custom P2P chart with the expanded gamut inks you want to use (see Choosing your Inks on page 11). 4.2 Choosing your Inks With, you mix your inks on press rather than in the ink room. You can use with 5, 6 or 7 inks, but choosing 7 inks will maximize the gamut expansion for your images. In the picture below, you can see the original CMYK gamut on the left, and the gamut expansion provided by the 3 added colors on the right. With, you don t have to use predetermined inks, you can choose the inks that work best for your jobs. 11 4

12 4 Below are a few guidelines to help you in your decision: they indicate what we found to give the best results in the majority of cases. However, we recommend you test inks on your press, to make the best choice for your individual requirements Inks Choice Guidelines We recommend you choose single-pigment inks if possible, to get purer colors. You can for example choose inks from your ink supplier s base colors (as in the example below). Consult your ink supplier for advice. We also recommend you consider the following factors in your decision: The level of gamut expansion you want. The type of images you usually print. The cost of certain inks. The printability of certain inks. The compatibility of certain inks with your proofing system. Choosing your CMYK Inks You can choose any Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Black inks, but we recommend you keep using the ones you already use, as you have tried and tested them for your press. Choosing your Orange/Red Ink You can choose either a red or an orange ink. Choosing a Red Ink 12

13 You may want to choose a red ink if you generally print jobs that need more red than orange (for example for fashion work). Choosing an Orange Ink You may want to choose an orange ink for two reasons: To get maximum gamut expansion: as you can see below, adding a red ink (on the left) provides less gamut expansion than adding an orange ink (on the right). If you print jobs that have bright orange hues: you can reproduce a bright red quite accurately by mixing orange and magenta inks, but you can t reproduce a bright orange with the same accuracy from a red and a yellow ink. + = 13 4

14 4 Orange Magenta + Red Result Red Result Orange = Yellow Choosing your Green Ink You can choose either a bright green ink (green ink mixed with yellow ink) or a single-pigment green ink (Phthalo Green). Choosing a Bright Green Ink You may want to choose a bright green ink (for example Pantone 354 C) to match a similar ink in your proofing system (for example Kodak Approval). Choosing a Single-Pigment Green Ink You may want to choose single-pigment green ink (for example Pantone Green C) for two reasons: To get maximum gamut expansion: as you can see below, adding a bright green ink (on the left) provides less gamut expansion than adding a single-pigment green ink (on the right). 14

15 If you print jobs that have green hues close to the single-pigment green color: you can reproduce a bright green quite accurately by mixing green and yellow inks, but you can t reproduce a Phthalo Green with the same accuracy from a bright green and a cyan ink. + Single Pigment Green = Yellow + Bright Green Result Bright Green Result Single Pigment Green = Cyan Choosing your Blue/Violet Ink You can choose either a blue or a violet ink. Choosing a Blue Ink You may want to choose a blue ink (for example Pantone Reflex Blue) for three reasons: To match a similar ink in your proofing system (for example Kodak Approval). If blue ink is more stable on your press than violet ink. Because blue ink may be less expensive than violet ink. Choosing a Violet Ink You may want to choose a violet ink (for example Pantone Violet C) for three reasons: 15 4

16 4 To get maximum gamut expansion: as you can see below, adding a blue ink (on the left) provides less gamut expansion than adding a violet ink (on the right). If violet ink is more stable on your press than blue ink. If you print jobs that have lots of violet hues: you can reproduce a blue quite accurately by mixing violet and cyan inks, but you can t reproduce a violet with the same accuracy from a blue and a magenta ink. + Violet = Cyan + Blue Result Blue Result Violet = Magenta 4.3 Choosing your Printing Target A common method of performing quality control on your press output is by using a dot gain target (deciding what dot gain you want your printed output to have, and making the press match it). This may be required if you are working with a pre-media house or a large brand owner (for example they may need you to print G7 compliant or ISO certified), or you may have your own quality target or follow another standard (for example if you are printing on less usual substrates) Printing to G7 G7 is a specification from IDEAlliance's GRACoL committee, aimed at matching color on printing devices, with an emphasis on gray balance. 16

17 For expanded gamut printing, printing to G7 means that: your CMYK inks should have the dot gain specified by G7, your expanded gamut inks should have linear dot gain Printing to ISO, another Standard or a Custom Target You can also use curve sets you created in Curve Pilot to define the standard you want to print to. This can be for example: the ISO standard, another standard applicable to your specific type of printing (for example if you are printing on less usual substrates), your own target dot gain curves. A curve set contains a target for each ink of your ink set (among other information). For more information about curve sets, please see the Curve Pilot PressSync documentation. 17 4

18 5 5. Setting up your Color Database for What is the Color Database? The color (management) database (also called "CMS database") contains all the color management settings used to process your files (profiles, color strategies, ink books, etc.). It contains both a set of default settings, and any custom settings you have created. Using the Color Database with Esko Applications If you are working with several Esko applications, we recommend that they all use the same color database, so that your custom settings are automatically shared between all applications. You can create color management settings in the Color Engine Pilot and/or the Profile Creator, and use these settings in your other Esko applications (Automation Engine, ArtPro, PackEdge...). 5.1 If You Have an Automation Engine Server If you are using an Automation Engine server, we recommend you install your color database when installing Automation Engine, before you install the other applications that will use the color database. In this case, you should install the color database in a central location (either your Automation Engine server or a central "resources server" connected to your Automation Engine server), and your other Esko applications will get the location of the color database from your Automation Engine server Setup in ArtPro To make sure ArtPro connects to the color database defined on your Automation Engine server (and uses the ink books in that color database): 1. In ArtPro, go to ArtPro > Preferences... or use Command + K. 2. Connect to your Automation Engine server: a) Go to the Servers tab and click Automation Engine. b) Fill in your Automation Engine Server name or IP address. c) Fill in the User Name and Password you use to connect to this server, and press Tab. If the connection is successful, you will see a green dot and the word Connected. 3. Make sure you use the ink books from your color database: a) In the Color tab of the Preferences, select the Load Color Engine Ink Books option. b) If you want to load a certain ink book by default when using inks from your color database, select that ink book in the Preferred Color Engine Ink Book list. See the ArtPro documentation for more information about using inks and ink books. 18

19 c) Choose to Load Color Engine Ink Books From Automation Engine to use the color database defined on your Automation Engine server. 4. Click OK Setup in PackEdge To make sure PackEdge connects to the color database defined on your Automation Engine server: 1. In PackEdge, go to Edit > Preferences... or use Ctrl + Alt + Shift + P. 2. Connect to your Automation Engine server (or check that these settings have been automatically filled in): a) Go to the Servers&Resources tab and select Connect to Automation Engine Server. b) Enter your Automation Engine Server Name and click Check. You should see a message saying the server is up and running. c) Select Login with the following user account settings, and fill in the User Name and Password you use to connect to this server. If the connection is successful, you will see a green dot user... and the message Connected as 3. In Data Resources, choose As defined on the Automation Engine server. This makes sure you use the color database defined on your Automation Engine server. 4. Click OK and restart PackEdge (if you had to change the settings) Setup in the Plug-in Note: When installing the plug-in for Adobe Photoshop, you also get the Esko Setup plug-in, in which you can perform the necessary setup for your plug-in. The plug-ins are compatible with the following operating systems and versions of Photoshop: Mac OS 10.7 or later* Photoshop CS6 (in 64-bit mode) Photoshop CC2014 (in 64-bit mode) Note: You can also use the plug-ins with an older 64-bit version of Photoshop. To do this, copy both plug-ins into the Plug-ins folder of that Photoshop version. Windows 7 or later* Photoshop CS6 (in 32-bit or 64-bit mode) Photoshop CC2014 (in 64-bit mode) * For more details about the supported operating systems, please see the system requirements. To make sure the plug-in connects to the color database defined on your Automation Engine server: 19 5

20 5 1. In Photoshop, go to File > Automate > Esko Setup... to open the Esko Setup plug-in. 2. To be able to use the plug-in, make sure you have a license: If you have... then... a local license that you have already activated before installing the plug-in you don't need to do anything extra. a local license that you still need to activate do the following: 1. In Plug-in Overview, click Activate Enter your product key in the Activate License Assistant that opens. 3. Enter your Esko ID and password. 4. When you see the message Activation completed successfully!, click Done to close the assistant. For more complex cases, you can click Esko Local License Manager... to use the Local License Manager application (for more information see the Local License Manager documentation). a network license that has already been activated on a server in your network do the following: 1. Click Network License at left. 2. Enter the name or IP address of your License Server and click Apply. You should see a green check the message Connection is OK. 3. Select next to Installed Plug-ins. a network license that you still need to activate with see the Network License Manager documentation for activation information. 3. In Color Settings, connect to the color database defined on your Automation Engine server: a) Select Link to Color Engine then Use color settings from server. b) Enter the name or IP address of your Automation Engine Server, and the User Name and Password you use to connect to this server. c) Click the Apply button. You should see a path to the color database and a green check with OK. 4. Click OK to finish the setup. 5.2 If You Don't Have an Automation Engine Server If you are not using Automation Engine, we recommend you install the color database when installing the Color Engine Pilot, before you install the other applications that will use the color database. In this case, you should make sure that you install your color database on a server accessible to your other Esko applications. 20

21 The color database is located in a folder called bg_data_cms_v010, created when installing the Color Engine Pilot. For example, if you installed your Color Engine Pilot on your server's C:/ drive, you will find the color database in C:/Esko/bg_data_cms_v010). This folder is automatically shared. bg_data_cms_v010 has two subfolders: r (read), that has all the default settings, w (write) where all your custom settings are saved Setup in ArtPro To make sure ArtPro connects to the color database you installed with the Color Engine Pilot (and uses the ink books in that color database): 1. On your ArtPro computer, mount the bg_data_cms_v010 color database folder using the smb protocol. For example, if the server where your color database is installed is called colorserver, use smb://colorserver/bg_data_cms_v010. Attention: If you restart your machine, you will need to mount this folder again. 2. In ArtPro, go to ArtPro > Preferences... or use Command + K. 3. In the Color tab of the Preferences, select the Load Color Engine Ink Books option. 4. If you want to load a certain ink book by default when using inks from your color database, select that ink book in the Preferred Color Engine Ink Book list. See the ArtPro documentation for more information about using inks and ink books. 5. Connect to your color database: in Load Color Engine Ink Books From, choose Browse and browse to the bg_data_cms_v010 folder you mounted. 6. Click OK Setup in PackEdge To make sure PackEdge connects to the color database you installed with the Color Engine Pilot: 1. On your PackEdge computer, add the bg_data_cms_v010 color database folder as a network drive or a network place. 2. In PackEdge, go to Edit > Preferences... or use Ctrl + Alt + Shift + P. 3. Go to the Servers&Resources tab and make sure that Connect to Automation Engine Server is not selected. 4. In Data Resources, define where the color database folder is located: If PackEdge and the Color Engine Pilot are installed on different computers, select From share on remote computer, and enter the name of the computer where the Color Engine Pilot is installed. If PackEdge and the Color Engine Pilot are installed on the same computer, select Use from local system. 21 5

22 5 Tip: Click the Show Location of Data Resources... button to check where the bg_data_cms_v010 folder you selected is located. 5. Click OK and restart PackEdge Setup in the Plug-in Note: When installing the plug-in for Adobe Photoshop, you also get the Esko Setup plug-in, in which you can perform the necessary setup for your plug-in. The plug-ins are compatible with the following operating systems and versions of Photoshop: Mac OS 10.7 or later* Photoshop CS6 (in 64-bit mode) Photoshop CC2014 (in 64-bit mode) Note: You can also use the plug-ins with an older 64-bit version of Photoshop. To do this, copy both plug-ins into the Plug-ins folder of that Photoshop version. Windows 7 or later* Photoshop CS6 (in 32-bit or 64-bit mode) Photoshop CC2014 (in 64-bit mode) * For more details about the supported operating systems, please see the system requirements. To make sure the plug-in connects to the color database you installed with the Color Engine Pilot: 1. Make sure the color database folder is accessible on your Photoshop computer: If you are running Photoshop on a Mac, mount the bg_data_cms_v010 color database folder using the smb protocol. For example, if the server where your color database is installed is called colorserver, use smb://colorserver/bg_data_cms_v010. Attention: If you restart your machine, you will need to mount this folder again. If you are running Photoshop on Windows, add the bg_data_cms_v010 color database folder as a network drive or a network place. 2. In Photoshop, go to File > Automate > Esko Setup... to open the Esko Setup plug-in. 3. To be able to use the plug-in, make sure you have a license: 22 If you have... then... a local license that you have already activated before installing the plug-in you don't need to do anything extra.

23 If you have... then... a local license that you still need to activate do the following: 1. In Plug-in Overview, click Activate Enter your product key in the Activate License Assistant that opens. 3. Enter your Esko ID and password. 4. When you see the message Activation completed successfully!, click Done to close the assistant. For more complex cases, you can click Esko Local License Manager... to use the Local License Manager application (for more information see the Local License Manager documentation). a network license that has already been activated on a server in your network do the following: 1. Click Network License at left. 2. Enter the name or IP address of your License Server and click Apply. You should see a green check the message Connection is OK. 3. Select next to Installed Plug-ins. a network license that you still need to activate with see the Network License Manager documentation for activation information. 4. In Color Settings, connect to the color database you installed with the Color Engine Pilot: a) Select Link to Color Engine then Use custom color settings folder. b) Browse to the bg_data_cms_v010 folder you mounted. c) You should see a path to the color database and a green check with OK. 5. Click OK to finish the setup. 23 5

24 5 5.3 If You are Only Using the Plug-in Note: When installing the plug-in for Adobe Photoshop, you also get the Esko Setup plug-in, in which you can perform the necessary setup for your plug-in. The plug-ins are compatible with the following operating systems and versions of Photoshop: Mac OS 10.7 or later* Photoshop CS6 (in 64-bit mode) Photoshop CC2014 (in 64-bit mode) Note: You can also use the plug-ins with an older 64-bit version of Photoshop. To do this, copy both plug-ins into the Plug-ins folder of that Photoshop version. Windows 7 or later* Photoshop CS6 (in 32-bit or 64-bit mode) Photoshop CC2014 (in 64-bit mode) * For more details about the supported operating systems, please see the system requirements. If you are only using the plug-in, you get a "mini" color database installed locally when installing the plug-in. 1. In Photoshop, go to File > Automate > Esko Setup... to open the Esko Setup plug-in. 2. To be able to use the plug-in, make sure you have a license: If you have... then... a local license that you have already activated before installing the plug-in you don't need to do anything extra. a local license that you still need to activate do the following: 1. In Plug-in Overview, click Activate Enter your product key in the Activate License Assistant that opens. 3. Enter your Esko ID and password. 4. When you see the message Activation completed successfully!, click Done to close the assistant. For more complex cases, you can click Esko Local License Manager... to use the Local License Manager application (for more information see the Local License Manager documentation). 24

25 If you have... then... a network license that has already been activated on a server in your network do the following: 1. Click Network License at left. 2. Enter the name or IP address of your License Server and click Apply. You should see a green check the message Connection is OK. 3. Select next to Installed Plug-ins. a network license that you still need to activate with see the Network License Manager documentation for activation information. 3. In Color Settings, make sure that: You see a path to the local "mini" color database (such as Users/Shared/EskoArtwork/ CMS Photoshop/bg_data_photoshop_V010) and a green check The Link to Color Engine option is not selected. with OK. 4. Click OK to finish the setup. 25 5

26 6 6. Profiling your Press with the Profile Creator With the Profile Creator application, you can create an profile for your conventional press, using 5, 6 or 7 inks of your choice. When profiling a press, you may encounter the following typical problems: measurement errors due to bad print quality, measurement variations across a sheet, measurement variations between press runs (for instance when printing different profile sections in different runs for expanded gamut printing), difficulty to hit the target/match your desired quality standard. With the Profile Creator, you can address these problems by: Inspecting the measurement data and repairing faulty patches. Averaging several measurements of a chart to correct for variations across a sheet or across press runs. Smoothing your measurements to further compensate for press variation. Deriving compensation curves from your measurement data to help you meet your desired target on your production runs. For more information, please see the Profile Creator documentation. 26

27 7. Converting Images with the Plug-in The Photoshop plug-in enables you to convert CMYK or RGB images to CMYKOGB*. You can either match or expand the image s gamut*. Matching the gamut allows you to reproduce RGB images on press more accurately (the CMYKOGB gamut covers more RGB colors than the CMYK gamut). Expanding the gamut of CMYK or RGB images using CMYKOGB yields brighter images, containing a wider range of colors. The options in the plug-in allow you to control the conversion* precisely. Note: To convert an RGB image to CMYKOGB, the image must have an RGB source profile. The plug-in does not support layers. To convert an image with layers to CMYKOGB, you need to flatten it first. 7.1 The Plug-in in Photoshop To use in Photoshop, go to the File menu, and select Automate > Convert with... This opens the Convert with dialog. 27 7

28 7 The Preview at left shows how the image will look once converted with the settings at right. You can click the preview to briefly see the original image again. 1. You can preview: all channels, only the CMYK channels, only the OGB channels (to see the added color), each channel individually. The channels visible in the preview have a 2. You can: zoom in and out of the image, make it fit the preview area using icon.. drag the image to pan it. You can see the CMYK, OGB and LCH values of any point of your image as you place your mouse on it (with the Hue value in degrees and percentage). This shows the original values (for CMYK images), followed by the converted values. 3. You can choose general conversion settings. 4. The color wheel* shows what part of the gamut is being edited: the Orange (Magenta-Yellow-Orange-blacK), Green (Cyan-Yellow-Green-blacK) or Blue (Cyan-Magenta-Blue-blacK) section when expanding the gamut, 28

29 the whole gamut when matching it. You can see the Hue of the point currently selected in the image indicated on the color wheel. 5. You can set options to Expand or Match the gamut in this area (depending on what you chose to do). 6. You can set extra options to fine-tune the color conversion here. 7. If desired, you can save an Device Link from your settings. 7.2 Converting an Image to Colors 1. Open your image in Photoshop and make sure it is the current image. 2. If your image is RGB, make sure it has a profile. 3. Go to File > Automate > Convert with... to open the Convert with dialog. 4. Choose your Press Profile. You can select any multicolor Esko or ICC profiles* (5, 6 or 7 ink profiles containing CMYK inks) defined in your color database, but we recommend that you profile your press with the Profile Creator and use that profile here. 5. If your image is CMYK, you can use a Device Link that you have created previously in the plug-in if desired. See Creating an Device Link with the Plug-in on page 59 for more information. 6. Choose to either Expand or Match your image s gamut, and set expansion or matching options. See Gamut Expansion on page 30 and Gamut Matching on page Set Separation Options to fine-tune your color conversion. See Separation Options on page If desired, you can save your settings as an Device Link. See Creating an Device Link with the Plug-in on page 59 for more information. 9. When you are satisfied with the result shown in the Preview, click OK to convert your file. Note: If the result is not satisfactory, you can revert to the original image using the History palette or File > Revert. You can then edit the conversions options as you wish and convert your image again. 29 7

30 7 7.3 Gamut Expansion When expanding your image s gamut with an conversion, you need to define which parts of the gamut you want to expand. You can expand the gamut in the Orange, Green and Blue Hue Sectors, and within each sector, in the Lightness*, Chroma* and Hue* ranges. Gamut Expansion Presets The plug-in comes with eight pre-defined presets for gamut expansion: Max Gamut High Gamut Mid Gamut Normal Normal Fleshtones Smooth Smooth Fleshtones Subtle Working with Presets If desired, you can also: create a custom preset, import a custom preset created with another copy of the plug-in, edit a custom preset, delete a custom preset The Max Gamut Preset Using this preset expands your image s gamut as much as possible. This means that will generate a maximum of color in all the relevant areas of your image. For example, it will generate a maximum of Orange in the reds and oranges of your image. For each sector (Orange, Green, and Blue), you can see that each curve is maintained at 100% gamut expansion (the Boost value is 100) throughout the Lightness, Chroma and Hue ranges. 100% expansion throughout the Lightness range means the color(s) will be added to all shades of a same color, from the darkest to the lightest. 30

31 100% expansion throughout the Chroma range means the color(s) will be added to all degrees of saturation of a color, from pure gray to the most saturated form of this color. 100% expansion throughout the Hue range means the color(s) will be added to all colors of the image. The pictures below show the result of an conversion using the Max Gamut preset: the color wheel on the left is the original CMYK image, the middle wheel is the resulting CMYKOGB image, and the wheel on the right shows the OGB separations that created and added to the original image. Tip: Use the OGB preview to view the newly created Orange, Green, and Blue separations. Example You can see the benefit of the conversion in the example below: the picture on the left is CMYK, the one on the right has been converted to CMYKOGB using the Max Gamut preset. You can see the added OGB separations below. Note that added the most orange in the saturated red areas, and the most green in the saturated green areas. 31 7

32 The High Gamut Preset The High Gamut, Mid Gamut and Normal presets generate a maximum expansion of the gamut in all areas except neutrals. They differ in how much they preserve neutrals. The High Gamut preset only keeps pure grays from gamut expansion. You can see this in the Chroma curves: the Boost is 0 for pure grays, and rises sharply to 100 when the grays start turning into colors The Mid Gamut Preset The Mid Gamut preset keeps most neutral areas from gamut expansion (compared to the High Gamut preset, the curves rise a bit later). 32

33 7.3.4 The Normal Preset The Normal preset keeps the conversion s effects out of neutrals altogether, and expands the gamut only when the colors start to be saturated. Example You can use this preset to convert an image with both saturated and neutral areas (as the one below) to colors. A conversion with a Max Gamut Gamut Expansion (left) gives an unnatural orange color to part of the wooden bench. You can see at right that it generates too much orange in the neutral areas. 33 7

34 7 The solution is to choose a preset that leaves out the neutral color, like Normal. This gives the bottom left picture as a result, where the tulips are still brighter than in the original image, but where the bench keeps a natural color. This conversion only generates orange in the saturated areas The Normal Fleshtones Preset The Normal Fleshtones preset limits the creation of Orange in areas with a high lightness and/or a low chroma. You can use it to convert images containing flesh tones and/or beige colors. 34

35 In the Green and Blue Hue sections, it expands the gamut the same way the Normal preset does. Example For this image, an conversion with Maximum Gamut Expansion (Max Gamut) makes the skin tones look too orange. A conversion with the Normal Fleshtones preset gives a more natural effect in the skin tones, while still expanding the gamut in the other areas (the bright green leafy background). 35 7

36 The Smooth Preset The Smooth preset expands the gamut gradually into the saturated colors (so more Orange / Green / Blue is added as the color gets deeper). The conversion effect is then more subtle, as shown in the CMYKOGB and generated OGB wheels below: Use this to make the final result subtler than with a Maximum Gamut Expansion (Max Gamut) conversion. 36

37 Example In the example below, the original CMYK image is a bit dull: However, an conversion with Max Gamut makes it look more like a colorized picture. The Orange and Blue tones are especially bright, and really different from the original image. A conversion with the Smooth preset adds chroma more gradually into the saturated colors, which gives a more natural effect, as you can see below. 37 7

38 The Smooth Fleshtones Preset The Smooth Fleshtones preset limits the creation of Orange in areas with a high lightness and/or a low chroma. In the Green and Blue Hue sections, it expands the gamut more gradually into the saturated colors than the Normal Fleshtones preset (it uses the same curves as the Smooth preset for those sectors). Use this preset to convert images containing flesh tones and/or beige colors, and to add chroma gradually into all saturated colors. Example 38

39 For this image, an conversion with Maximum Gamut Expansion (Max Gamut) makes the picture too bright and the skin tones too orange. While a conversion with the Normal Fleshtones preset (below) solves the skin tones problem, you may also want to limit the gamut expansion in the other areas (for example if the sweaters are too brightly colored). 39 7

40 7 A conversion with the Smooth Fleshtones preset limits the gamut expansion in all areas, to keep the image looking natural The Subtle Preset The Subtle preset expands the gamut very gradually into the saturated colors and preserves neutrals. 40

41 Use this if you want a moderate gamut expansion for your images, to prevent them from looking dull but without making them too bright and looking unnatural. Example In the example below, the original CMYK image is a bit dull: However, an conversion with Maximum Gamut Expansion adds too much chroma, and makes the picture too bright and looking unnatural. A conversion with the Subtle preset gives a more natural effect: it only adds a blush of color to the peaches. 41 7

42 Creating a Custom Preset If desired, you can fine-tune the gamut expansion curves yourself, and save them as a custom preset so that you can reuse them on other images. 1. Start with the Orange Hue Sector. 2. Drag the points of the Lightness curve to adjust the gamut expansion as necessary for different lightness levels. You can also edit the Lightness and Boost values below the curve. The Preview at left adjusts immediately. Keep refining the curve until you are satisfied with how your oranges and reds look at different lightness levels. 3. Adjust the Chroma and the Hue curves using the same method. 4. Adjust the Green and Blue Hue Sectors' Lightness, Chroma and Hue curves too The Expand Gamut Preset list shows Custom. Click then Save As...

43 Choose a name and location for your preset and click Save. Your gamut expansion preset is saved as a.gmt file Importing a Custom Preset If you want to use a preset that you haven t created with your copy of the plug-in (for example a preset saved on another computer within your network, or a preset that a colleague ed to you): 1. Click beside the Preset list then click Load Browse to the preset and click Open. Tip: For ease of use, you can save that preset on your computer, by clicking then Save As Editing a Custom Preset 1. Select the preset you want to edit in the Preset list (under Custom), or import it. 2. Adjust the curves as necessary. 3. Click then Save As..., and overwrite your preset Deleting a Custom Preset 1. Click beside the Preset list. 2. In the Expand Gamut pop-up, select the preset to delete and click Remove. 3. Click Yes in the confirmation message. Note: You cannot delete predefined presets. 7.4 Gamut Matching When matching your image s gamut, you need to define the way the colors are transformed to the output device s color space. 1. Select Match Gamut as Conversion Type. 2. Choose a rendering Intent. See Rendering Intents on page Choose whether to use Black Point Compensation or not. 43 7

44 7 See Black Point Compensation on page Rendering Intents Select the rendering intent to use when converting CMYK or RGB objects. A Rendering Intent handles the conversion of out-of-gamut spot colors and of the background color. Each rendering intent does this in a different way, so you should choose the one that is more adapted to the way you are printing and the result you want to achieve: Use the Relative Colorimetric rendering intent if you don't want to simulate the source background (the point that has 0% of all inks in the source profile). This will proof your file as if the proofer substrate was exactly the same as the substrate defined in your source profile. For example: your press prints on cream colored card stock whereas your proofer prints on bright white paper, but you don't want to simulate the cream background on your proof. With this rendering intent, colors from the source profile that cannot be reproduced by the proofer will be converted to the closest color(s) the proofer can reproduce. In some cases several colors will be converted to the same color, which means that you can sometime lose some detail, especially in dark saturated areas and the dark parts of gradations. 44

45 Note that typically the proofer profile has a bigger gamut than the press profile, so there are not many colors that the proofer cannot reproduce. Use the Absolute Colorimetric rendering intent if you want to simulate the source background to get as exact a color match as possible. For example: you do want to simulate the cream colored card stock used on your press on your proofer substrate, to see how the final output will look like. As with the Relative Colorimetric rendering intent, colors from the source profile that cannot be reproduced by the proofer will be converted to the closest color(s) the proofer can reproduce, meaning you can sometime lose some detail, although there are typically not many press colors that a proofer cannot reproduce Black Point Compensation Use Black Point Compensation to preserve details in the shadows when converting RGB images to colors. Without black point compensation, several out-of-gamut dark RGB colors may be converted to the same color, resulting in a loss of detail. Black point compensation preserves the relationship between those dark colors in the converted image, resulting in more detail in the shadows. 7.5 Separation Options Whether you are expanding or matching the gamut, you can set extra Separation Options to finetune your color conversion. 45 7

46 7 Separation Options Presets The plug-in comes with two pre-defined separation options presets: Maximum Black Preserve Black Working with Presets If desired, you can also: create a custom preset, import a custom preset created with another copy of the plug-in, edit a custom preset, delete a custom preset The Maximum Black Preset This preset: ignores the CMYK profile embedded in your original image, uses a Maximum Black Black Generation (see Black Generation), uses a Smoothing value of 40 (see Smoothing) The Preserve Black Preset This preset: ignores the CMYK profile embedded in your original image, uses a Map Black on Black Black Generation (see Black Generation), uses a Smoothing value of 40 (see Smoothing) Creating a Custom Preset 1. When converting CMYK images that have an embedded source profile, choose to either: use the profile embedded in your original CMYK image for the conversion (Use Assigned Profile), Ignore the image s Source CMYK Profile. Note: We recommend you ignore the embedded profile when using Preserve Black in Black Generation (as an embedded profile changes the separations -including black- so using it may give unexpected results). 2. Enter a Smoothing value. Use this parameter to produce smoother results, especially in vignettes/gradations. This minimizes sharp color transitions when converting images with gradations. We recommend to use the default value of 40 for most images. 46

47 Attention: Smoothing can reduce the color accuracy by a small amount (the accuracy decreases as you increase the smoothing value). 3. Choose what is more important for you during the conversion (Conversion Priority): Use Accuracy to convert the colors in the most accurate way. Use Speed to speed up the conversion for large images (this may result in a small loss of accuracy). Use Smoothness to get smoother separations. This is less accurate than the Accuracy or even the Speed option, but may be useful when the profiles are of a lesser quality (for example if it is difficult to take consistent measurements off the press). Tip: We recommend that you choose Speed when trying out an conversion on large files, and Accuracy when converting the files for production. 4. Choose what type of Black Generation to use. See Black Generation on page 48 for more information. 5. If you want to use OGB inks to print your shadows instead of Black ink, select Replace black with OGB. You can also can adjust the level of shadows in your image using the Mid-point option, and use your press profile s OGB measurements if available. See Replace Black with OGB on page Select Preserve original separations if you want to restore some or all of the CMY removed (replaced by OGB) during the color conversion. This doesn t affect the black or OGB levels but simply adds some C, M and / or Y in the areas affected by the conversion. Attention: This option does not give a color accurate result! Note: This option does not restore any CMY replaced by black during Black Generation. If you want to keep more CMY during black generation, you should use a black generation mode that is more appropriate to your needs. If you want to keep your CMYK separations relatively unchanged during the conversion, you can do the following: 1. Set the Black Generation to Map Black on Black. 2. Set Preserve original separations to 100% for C, M and / or Y. Tip: When using this option with gamut expansion, we advise you to refine the color balance by choosing a moderate Gamut Expansion (for example Mid-Gamut). 7. The Separation Options Preset list shows Custom. Click then Save As... Choose a name and location for your preset and click Save. Your separation options preset is saved as a.spn file. 47 7

48 7 Black Generation You can choose a Black Generation mode to define the level of black you want when converting your image. Black Generation* determines how much Black versus how much C / M / Y is used in the converted image. It doesn t affect the Orange / Green / Blue generation or the final (composite) image. Predefined Black Generation Modes Note: Only Maximal Black (full GCR*) can be considered color accurate. The conversion becomes progressively less accurate as you reduce the level of GCR (even if the original image had very little black). Maximal Black generates the highest possible amount of black. More black and less of other inks are used to reproduce the file's colors. This may be cheaper to print and avoids color casts. Map Black on Black converts black separately from CMY, and maps the black channel of the source profile onto the black channel of the destination profile. This means that objects that are black in the source profile will still be black (with no CMY) in the destination profile. So for example black text and barcodes will stay 100% black, and black gradients won't have color casts. However, the general level of black may change slightly due to dot gain. 48

49 Note: This black generation mode is less color accurate for the other colors in your file (for example for objects made of CMY, or overprints of CMY+K)! Minimal Black generates the lowest possible amount of black, so black is used only in the shadows. It is sometimes also called "skeleton black". In the example below, you can see that very little black is used to reproduce the file's colors, which are made mostly of CMY. 49 7

50 7 Note: We recommend that you: use Minimal Black if you are printing mostly light colors, so that there is no graininess or "peppering", for example in skin tones (as black is only used in the shadows). don't use Minimal Black if you are printing mostly dark colors, especially when printing on a substrate that can't support the large amounts of inks needed for printing dark colors with for example CMY. Attention: Make sure your inks are stable when using Minimal Black, as a shift in your inks may cause color casts (for example if you get a new batch of Cyan ink that has much stronger pigments than the previous batch, there can be a Cyan color cast when printing with Minimal Black). Custom Black Generation Modes If you have defined custom black generation modes in Color Engine Pilot (and you have a color engine link license), you will be able to select them here (they will be at the bottom of the Black Generation list). Replace Black with OGB Select the Replace black with OGB separation option if you want to use OGB inks to print your shadows instead of Black ink. Note: This is not a color accurate operation (the preview will not be accurate either). For example, using Black and OGB inks (option off) will look like this: while using OGB and no Black (option on) will look like this: 50

51 Mid-point If you have selected Replace black with OGB, you can define a Mid-point to adjust the mid-tones in your image (to avoid the black looking too weak in your converted image). For example, the default Mid-point (50) gives the image on the left, while an increased Mid-point (75 here) gives the image on the right. OGB Profile Choose where you want to get your OGB measurements from when using OGB to print shadows: 51 7

52 7 Choose Use Press Profile if Applicable to use the OGB measurements in the press profile (if it contains any). If the press profile contains no OGB measurements, the standard OGB calculation will be used. Choose Standard OGB Calculation to ignore the press profile when replacing black with OGB and use standard OGB measurements instead Importing a Custom Preset If you want to use a preset that you haven t created with your copy of the plug-in (for example a preset saved on another computer within your network, or a preset that a colleague ed to you): 1. Click beside the Preset list then click Load Browse to the preset and click Open. Tip: For ease of use, you can save that preset on your computer, by clicking then Save As Editing a Custom Preset 1. Select the preset you want to edit in the Preset list (under Custom), or import it. 2. Adjust the curves as necessary. 3. Click then Save As..., and overwrite your preset Deleting a Custom Preset 1. Click beside the Preset list. 2. In the Separation Options pop-up, select the preset to delete and click Remove. 3. Click Yes in the confirmation message. Note: You cannot delete predefined presets. 7.6 The Preview Conversion Plug-in The display of CMYKOGB images in Photoshop is not color managed. The Photoshop display can be used to accurately look at a single separation (as a gray scale), and to measure dot percentages in the separation(s). However, due to a limitation of Photoshop, the display of all separations together will not necessarily match the result on press. To preview the results of your conversion more accurately, go to the File menu and select Automate > Preview an Conversion.... This opens the Preview an Conversion dialog. It contains options to simulate converting your image to colors. 52

53 1. Select the Press Profile to use (that you created with the Profile Creator). 2. Choose to simulate the paper color or not. Select Simulate Paper Color to simulate the real result of printing on paper. Deselect Simulate Paper Color to map the press s white/black range (the white point being the paper s color) to the monitor's white/black range. This shows white CMYK areas as monitor white and black CMYK areas as monitor black, and scales everything in between accordingly. Note: Older versions of the plug-in always simulate the paper color. The Preview Conversion plug-in generates a Lab preview file. This file shows your file s colors as they will look after an conversion with your chosen options. In the example below, the picture on the left is the original CMYK file, while the picture on the right is the Lab conversion preview file. Note: The accuracy of the preview depends on your monitor s calibration. 7.7 Viewer The Viewer is available if you have the Flexotools, Ink Tools or plug-in installed About Viewer Benefits of using Viewer Viewer is a very accurate separation viewer with a lot of extra production tools. It eliminates the need for separated proofs and will help you to avoid bad plate-making. In this preview, you have access to advanced tools such as the Densitometer. 53 7

54 7 To open the Viewer window, choose File > Automate > Viewer The Viewer window To open the Viewer window, choose File > Automate > Viewer... When opening a document, or changing to a different job, Viewer will (re)calculate the Preview. Viewer will only work when the active document is a CMYK or Multichannel image, at 8 bits per channels. Otherwise the Viewer will show a warning "The current document is not in the CMYK or Multichannel mode". When changes are made in the Photoshop document, you have to click the Refresh button for the changes to become visible in Viewer. Note: Viewer will take the Photoshop Layer visibility into account, but will disregard Photoshop's Channel visibility settings. By clicking the Minimize button, the Viewer window is minimized, showing only the Maximize button. You can maximize the Viewer window by clicking the Maximize button. If you choose File > Automate > Viewer... the Viewer window will be maximized and refreshed. profile If you have either an Ink Tools or license, you will get an accurate preview of documents using an Profile. If you only have Flexotools license, the document with Profile will not work. A message at the bottom of the Viewer palette will inform you that color will not be accurate. Navigating in the Preview The Viewer window shows the preview of your document in the left pane, and the list of used inks in the right pane of your Viewer palette. At the bottom of the palette, you will find: 1. a Pan tool (see below), a Zoom tool (see below) and a Densitometer tool (see Measure Ink Densities on page 55) 2. a zoom-in and zoom-out button and a field showing the current zoom percentage. 3. the Refresh button. 4. the Minimize button. Zoom in - zoom out To zoom in the preview pane of the Viewer palette, select the zoom tool and just click, and the view will zoom in using the clicked point as center point. To zoom out, click while holding the ALT key pressed, and the view will zoom out using the clicked point as center point. 54

55 You can also drag a rectangle to zoom in, and the new viewport will be a closest match to the rectangle you dragged. You can also use the default Photoshop shortcuts: cmd-0 to fit the image in the window, cmd-1 to set the zoom factor to 100%. To pan the view, select the Pan tool or hold down the spacebar and drag a line in the preview pane. The view will move the direction and the length of the line you drag. Separations In the Ink list, you can: Click the eye icon in front of a separation/color name to show or hide it. Alt-click an eye button to quickly hide all other separations and go in single-separation mode. Altclick the same eye button again to show all separations. You can also use the Photoshop shortcuts: Cmd-2 to show all separations, and Cmd-3 to show only the first separation, Cmd-4 for the second, etc. Double-click an ink to open the Display Inks window (for CMYK inks) or Spot Color dialog for spot colors. See Display Inks or Spot Colors on page 55 If only one ink is selected, you can choose in the fly-out menu of the Separations section if you want to see the single separation in RGB, using the actual color in grayscale, as the image might appear on film / plate in grayscale but inverted Spot Colors Spot colors are accurately shown in Viewer. By default, the color definition of the spot colors is defined by the LAB value of the solid ink, according to Photoshop. However, when possible, the Viewer will use the Color Engine ink information, offering the color accuracy of Color Engine. Colors from the Photoshop Pantone Coated and Pantone Uncoated inks are automatically matched with their Color Engine Ink equivalent If a spot color name matches the name of an ink in the Preferred Ink Book, that corresponding ink is used. The Preferred Ink Book can be set in File > Automate > Ink Tools Setup You can manually replace an ink by a Color Engine ink, by double-clicking the color patch in front of the channel name, and selecting an ink book and ink. If you click OK, the name and color of the Photoshop Channel will be changed. By selecting Add Spot Channel... from the fly-out menu of the separation section in the Viewer, you can immediately add a Color Engine spot color (instead of first adding a channel in Photoshop, and then replace the spot color by the correct Color Engine ink). Measure Ink Densities 55 7

56 7 Densitometer In the middle of the right side of the Viewer window, you can see the Densitometer section. You can show or hide the section by clicking the triangle in front of it. Select the Densitometer tool, and click on an area of your document to measure the separation densities in that area. Every time you click, a new measering point is set. The densities are shown to the right of each separation, and the color patch in the Densitometer section shows the measured color. The total density of all inks on the point that is being measured (the TAC value) is shown at the bottom of the separation list. Note: If the TAC value exceeds the TAC limit specified in the currently selected press settings, a warning icon is shown next to the Total Area Coverage Use the left and right arrow buttons to browse through the different measuring points. The according densities and color patch will be shown Note: If you are zoomed in and navigate to a measuring point not in the Viewer window, the Preview will pan to show the selected measuring point. Click the Remove button (X) or use backspace to delete the current measuring point. Change the Size of the current measuring point by clicking the up and down arrow. If the size is set to e.g. 3, the densitometer will take the average density of a 3 by 3 pixel area. Note: When creating a new measuring point, the current Size will be used. Select Show bubbles to show the measured densities next to every measuring point. 56

57 When in Flexo Print or Flexo Plate preview, the bubble will show a black dot next to the density for channels with a percentage equal or higher than the first dot percentage. When in Breakout preview, the bubble will show a red triangle icon next to the density for channels with a percentage below the first dot percentage. When in Total Area Coverage preview, the bubble will show a black dot next to the density for channels with a percentage equal or higher than the first dot percentage, and it will show a yellow triangle icon next to the total area coverage if it exceeds the currently set TAC value. The densities of separations that are not visible, are shown dimmed in the bubbles. Quality Control Registration Error The Registration Error Preview is a simulation of a design printed with misregistration. It can be very helpful to see if trapping is applied sufficiently and correctly. Use the slider to set the Registration Error, or enter a value in the input field. The separations are randomly shifted. In fact, all separations are moved exactly the distance of the Registration Error, but all under a random angle. If you want to see another random registration error simulation, click the Simulate Again button. 57 7

58 7 In the example above, you can see a small area of a job in regular preview (left) and with registration errors (right). In this case, you can clearly see no trapping was applied, so white lines appear at the registration shifts. 58

59 8. Creating an Device Link with the Plug-in An device link is used to convert CMYK to CMYKOGB, but using the same profile (typically, your press profile) as input and output profile. When converting a CMYK image, you can save your conversion settings as an device link, then use this device link in other Esko applications with functionality, to fine-tune the color conversion. 1. Check that your plug-in is connected to your color database (so that the device link you create will be available to your other Esko applications). In the Esko Setup plug-in, select Link to Color Engine and connect to your color database. See: Setup in the Plug-in on page 19 if you have an Automation Engine server, Setup in the Plug-in on page 22 if you don't have an Automation Engine server. 2. Open a CMYK image in Photoshop and go to File > Automate > Convert with... to open the plug-in. 3. Define the conversion settings you want to use: a) Choose the Press Profile corresponding to your press (that you created with the Profile Creator). b) Choose to either Expand or Match your image s gamut, and set expansion or matching options. See Gamut Expansion on page 30 and Gamut Matching on page 43. c) Set Separation Options to fine-tune your color conversion. See Separation Options on page 45. Note: If the image has a CMYK profile, it will be ignored in the device link, even if you choose Use Assigned Profile in the Source CMYK Profile option (as the device link uses your press profile as input and output profile). 4. When you are done, click Save as device link... at the bottom of the dialog. Enter a name for your device link and click OK. This saves the device link in your color database. Note: Changing the settings of an device link shows Automatic again in the Device Link list. You can save your changes by clicking Save as device link... and overwriting your existing device link. Tip: If you want to check the settings of an device link you created previously, and how it will affect an image you want to convert, just select it in the Device Link list at the top of the dialog. 59 8

60 8 If all your Esko applications are using the same color database, your other Esko applications will automatically pick up your device link from the database (you may have to restart them first). Once you have created a device link, you will be able to: 1. Use this device link to create an color strategy in the Color Engine Pilot. See Creating an Color Strategy with the Color Engine Pilot on page Use the color strategy to convert files in ArtPro, PackEdge and / or Automation Engine. See: Converting Files to Expanded Gamut Printing in ArtPro on page 75, Converting Files to Expanded Gamut Printing in PackEdge on page 86, Automating your Conversion in Automation Engine on page 97. You can also use the device link directly in ArtPro and PackEdge. 60

61 9. Creating an Color Strategy with the Color Engine Pilot What is a Color Strategy? A color strategy is a bundle of color management settings that ensures that your color reproduction is as accurate as possible. A color strategy always contains the source and destination profiles of the devices you are using, but may also contain a number of other color management settings. Trained Color Engine Pilot users create these strategies, and other operators just pick one when proofing/printing. This makes life easier for operators and makes a color workflow less error prone. What is an Color Strategy? color strategies contain color management settings to be used in conversions. We recommend you build yours using: the profile you have created for your press with the Profile Creator (you can either use it as both input and output profile, or only as output profile), the device link you have created with the plug-in (if you are using your press profile as both input and output profile). Once you have made your color strategy, you can use it in ArtPro, PackEdge and Automation Engine, to convert CMYK, RGB or spot color files to CMYKOGB. 9.1 How to Create an Color Strategy 1. In the Color Engine Pilot pane, click Color Strategies. 2. Right-click and select New. 3. In the dialog that opens, select an Input Profile and an Output Profile. You can either: Select your press s multicolor profile as both input and output profile (this is the most frequent case). By default, the application shows <Automatic> in Output Profile. This means that the output profile is the same as the input profile. Select an ISO profile (for example ISOcoated_v2_eci.icc) as input profile and your press s multicolor profile as output profile (if you have originally printed your file on an ISO standard press). Tip: To view information about the input/output profile (inks it contains, measurements...), click or. 4. If you have chosen a multi-channel Esko profile as output profile but you don t want to use some of its extra inks, click, then click the inks you don t want to use so the turns into a

62 9 5. Double-click Settings for CMYK... to use an device link or fill in CMYK conversion settings. See Settings for CMYK on page Double-click Settings for Spot Color Linework... to fill in your spot color conversion settings. See Settings for Spot Color Linework on page When you are finished creating your color strategy, go to File > Save or use Ctrl+S Settings for CMYK You can fill in different settings depending on the Input Profile and Output Profile you have chosen. When Using the Same Input and Output Profile In this case process colors don't need to be converted, but if desired you can use an device link to fine-tune them. To do this, you need to have created an device link for your press profile (that you are using as input and output profile in your color strategy) in the plug-in (otherwise the option will be greyed out). See Creating an Device Link with the Plug-in. 1. Click Convert CMYK to be able to select a Device Link. 2. Choose the Device Link you created in the plug-in. When Using Different Input and Output Profiles In this case, you can either: Choose an existing Proofing or InkSwitch Device Link in the list (this makes the rest of the settings unavailable). See the Color Engine Pilot documentation for more information about those types of device links. Choose <Automatic> and create a custom (but limited) device link using the rest of the settings: 1. In Gamut Mapping, choose between Closest Color (Classic) and Constant Hue. See Gamut Mapping on page Use the Output Channels option to define how to simulate the CMYK of the source profile using the destination profile. See Output Channels on page Choose a Black Generation mode. 62

63 See Black Generation on page 64. Note: The color accuracy is higher when using an existing Device Link. Gamut Mapping When the color space described by the source profile does not fit completely in the color space described by the destination profile, some colors in the source profile will not have an accurate match after conversion. Out-of-gamut colors can be rendered in different ways: Closest Color (Classic): out-of-gamut colors are mapped to the closest color on the border of the destination profile s gamut. The distance is calculated in CIE Lab Delta E 76. This might introduce a hue shift. Constant Hue: out-of-gamut colors are mapped to a color on the border of the destination profile s gamut that has the same hue. This option tries to keep the hue when performing gamut mapping. In the example below, trying to reproduce PMS Purple on press with the Closest Color gamut mapping technique causes the color to shift to a blue-ish color (1). To avoid this, the Constant Hue gamut mapping technique can be used instead. This technique tries to maintain the hue of the color. In this case, PMS Purple would be reproduced as a much less saturated purple (2). Note: Closest Color and Constant Hue give the same result for colors that fall inside the gamut of the destination profile. Output Channels This option is available when you are using an Esko multi-color profile as destination. Use it to define which destination profile's channels to use to reproduce the colors in your input job. Choose Generate all channels to use all of the available channels of your destination profile to simulate the source CMYK (so for example a color made of Magenta, Yellow and Black in the source profile could be reproduced by Orange and Black in the destination profile). 63 9

64 9 The original colors will typically be reproduced using 3 colors (2 neighboring colors + black). Choose Generate only CMYK to simulate the CMYK of the source profile with CMYK only. Spot colors will still be converted using all of the available channels. Black Generation Depending on the characteristics of your output device, the same color can be printed with different combinations of ink percentages. For example, you may be able to reproduce a medium black spot color with either CMYK {0%, 0%, 0%, 100%} or CMYK {90%, 90%, 100%, 0%}. You can choose a black generation mode to define the level of black you want to use in those combinations of ink percentages. The black generation modes available depend on the profiles you are using in your color strategy. Note: Black generation is only available when reproducing your original CMYK colors using the CMYK output channels (if you selected Generate only CMYK in Output Channels on page 63). Predefined Black Generation Modes Minimal Black generates the lowest possible amount of black, so black is used only in the shadows. It is sometimes also called "skeleton black". In the example below, you can see that very little black is used to reproduce the file's colors, which are made mostly of CMY. 64

65 Note: We recommend that you: use Minimal Black if you are printing mostly light colors, so that there is no graininess or "peppering", for example in skin tones (as black is only used in the shadows). don't use Minimal Black if you are printing mostly dark colors, especially when printing on a substrate that can't support the large amounts of inks needed for printing dark colors with for example CMY. Attention: Make sure your inks are stable when using Minimal Black, as a shift in your inks may cause color casts (for example if you get a new batch of Cyan ink that has much stronger pigments than the previous batch, there can be a Cyan color cast when printing with Minimal Black). Maximal Black generates the highest possible amount of black. More black and less of other inks are used to reproduce the file's colors. This may be cheaper to print and avoids color casts. No Black Mapping uses the same amount of black in the target as in the source profile, wherever possible. This keeps the general level of black, but black objects may contain some CMY after conversion (and vice-versa), to preserve the accuracy of the final colors. Map Black on Black converts black separately from CMY, and maps the black channel of the source profile onto the black channel of the destination profile. This means that objects that are black in the source profile will still be black (with no CMY) in the destination profile. So for example black text and barcodes will stay 100% black, and black gradients won't have color casts. However, the general level of black may change slightly due to dot gain. 65 9

66 9 Note: This black generation mode is less color accurate for the other colors in your file (for example for objects made of CMY, or overprints of CMY+K)! Single Color Black preserves both the black separation and the color accuracy. It maps the black channel of the source profile onto the black channel of the destination profile, so black objects stay only black. In the rest of the color space, it converts the colors as needed to preserve the color accuracy. This provides a better conversion of CMY+K overprints. Use B2A Tag is only available when using an ICC destination profile. It converts your file's separations according to the information in the destination profile's B2A tag. The B2A tag is the part of the ICC profile used to convert data from a device-independent color space into a device-dependent color space. Custom Black Generation Settings If desired, you can also create a custom black generation mode: choose Custom... and define your custom black generation curve in the Black Generation - <custom> dialog. See Custom Black Generation on page 66. If you have already defined custom black generation settings and saved them as a preset, you can use that preset as your custom black generation mode. You can also click modes). to fine-tune your preset (you cannot fine-tune predefined black generation Tip: Click the information button selected. to see some information about the black generation mode you Custom Black Generation If desired, you can create a custom black generation mode and save it as a preset, so you can reuse it in your color strategies. 66

67 In the Black Generation - <custom> dialog, set the control points and the color saturation range: 1. Use the Start slider (or enter a percentage) to set the starting point of the black generation curve. The entire black curve shifts with the starting point, but its shape is not affected. 2. Use the Maximum Output K slider to set the maximum value for the black generation curve. The black generation curve is cut off where it meets the Maximum Output K curve. When Maximum Output K changes, TAC (Total Area Coverage) changes by an equal amount. 3. Use the Strength slider to set the angle of the black generation curve where it is not affected by Maximum Output K or Smoothing. 4. Use the Smoothing slider to smooth the black generation curve. There are two forms of smoothing: upward and downward. If the end point of the base black generation curve (determined by Start and Strength) is below Maximum Output K, the curve will be smoothed upwards. Otherwise it will be smoothed downwards. In the case of upward smoothing, smoothing will take place around the end of the base black generation curve, and expand to the left with increasing value. In the case of downward smoothing, smoothing will take place around the point where the base black generation curve reaches Maximum Output K. Increasing smoothing increases the portion of the curve being smoothed. A smoothing value of 100 means that the whole curve, from the Start to its end point, will be smoothed. 5. Use the TAC (Total Area Coverage) slider if your press can print only a certain amount of ink on top of others because the drying of the ink becomes problematic at a certain speed. TAC stands for the total amount of C, M, Y and K on top of each other. The minimum value for TAC is the value of Maximum Output K. The maximum value of TAC is 400% minus the difference between 100 and the value of Maximum Output K. 67 9

68 9 6. Use the Color Saturation Range slider to define which colors will be replaced by black when performing Under Color Removal / Gray Component Replacement. 100% means you will affect even the most saturated colors. The closer the value comes to 0%, the more you will only affect neutral colors. 7. Select the Single Color Black option if you want to keep black text, barcodes % black. 8. You can now: Save your settings (click Save As Preset... and give your preset a name). Use the black generation settings you just defined without saving them as a preset (click OK). Discard your settings (click Cancel). Note: If you want to delete a black generation preset, select it in the Black Generation list, click the Custom button then click Delete this Preset in the Black Generation dialog Settings for Spot Color Linework Use this dialog to define how to convert spot colors to the channels of your output profile. You can set general options, that will apply to all spot colors, but also fine-tune how specific spot colors are converted (for example for spot colors that you use a lot). Based on what you define, the application will calculate a Color Build* for each spot color, which is a combination of percentages of the output profile's channels that will be used to print that spot color. 1. If you sometimes have unwanted printing effects on the press (for example with small dots of a dark ink being visible, or moiré), you can set specific options to avoid this. Select Stabilize Color Builds, click Stabilize Settings... and select the options needed to avoid your particular problem. See Stabilizing the Color Buildson page 70and Using Stabilize Settings on page 71for details. 2. Choose if you want to: Convert Opaque Inks or not. Convert Unregistered Inks (inks that are not in the color database) or not. 3. If you are working with an Esko output profile, you can also choose a Black Generation mode (see Black Generation on page 64). 4. Choose the Delta E Formula you want to use. Note: By default, the Default Delta E Formula you chose in the Color Engine Pilot's Preferences is selected. 5. Add a few test inks to the Color Builds list (to see the effect of the settings and pick the best ones for your inks). Click to add an ink, and/or type the ink name in the next available row. Click and select Open Ink Book... to open an ink book then drag and drop inks from it. For each ink that you added, you can see: 68

69 a color patch, the ink and ink book name, the type of conversion that will be used. This is either: Stabilized if the color builds could be stabilized according to the options you set (see Using Stabilize Settings on page 71). Best Match (the color builds with the lowest possible delta E) if you are not using stabilize settings, or if these color builds did not need to be stabilized. the color build values (the percentages of each output ink that will be used), the Delta E between the original color and the color build. Tip: To display the color builds with the highest Delta E at the top of the list, click the Delta E column twice. 6. Add the remaining inks to be converted (click ink books). and select Add Ink Book... to add complete You will see a progress bar while your settings are applied to the ink books you just added. 7. If necessary, you can edit individual color builds by: Changing some of the inks percentages manually (see Editing a Color Build Manually on page 73). Comparing Best Match and edited ink percentages and refining color builds (see Refining a Color Build on page 73). Keeping some inks always unconverted when using this color strategy (see Keeping an Ink Unconverted on page 74). 8. If you have color builds you made elsewhere (for example in InkWizard), you can import them into your color strategy. You can do this as follows: a) Click and select Import Color Builds... b) In the dialog that opens, browse to the.csv file with the color builds you want to import into this strategy and click Open. Important: The inks described in the.csv file need to be mapped to inks in the database! c) In the Import Color Builds dialog that appears, choose whether you want to Use the Ink Book names described in the file or Select an Ink Book. The latter option will override the ink book name in the imported color builds. d) Also select what the application should do If an ink isn't found in the selected Ink Book: Add it to the ink book Search for it in other ink books Don't add the ink to the color builds list e) Click OK. The color builds will be added to the Color Builds list as Custom Values. 69 9

70 9 Stabilizing the Color Builds Unwanted Printing Effects When using CMYK or a multicolor ink set to reproduce spot colors on press, you may sometimes have unwanted printing effects, due to the way different ink angles interact with each other (moiré), but also sometimes due to specific ink percentages. In fact, using very low or very high percentages of one of the inks can cause the resulting color to not have a smooth appearance, and even sometimes to have visible dots or visible holes. This can be especially problematic when reproducing skin tones: using a low percentage of black in the color build can sometimes cause "peppering" of the skin tone. Avoiding these Effects by Stabilizing Color Builds To avoid such problems, you can tweak the color builds used to reproduce spot colors, using settings to "stabilize" them. You can for example: Make an ink with a very high percentage (close to 100%) solid, to avoid small holes. Remove an ink with a very low percentage (close to 0%) from color builds, to avoid small dots. Avoid combining two particular inks, to avoid moiré. The application then recalculates the color builds, taking those settings into account. In the example below, you can see that while it is a lot better than printing with CMYK, the best CMYKOGV color match for the Pantone color (the color build with the lowest Delta E) doesn't give the best result on press (especially for flexo printing). In this case, you can get a much better printed result by making the separation with the highest percentage (Magenta) solid, and eliminating the separation with the lowest percentage (Black). Spot color to reproduce Possible color builds CMYK color build (89% Magenta, 81% Yellow and 0% Black) Delta E = 10.6 Best color match with CMYKOGV (98% Magenta, 84% Orange and 3% Black) 70

71 Spot color to reproduce Possible color builds Delta E = 2.3 Best printable match with CMYKOGV (100% Magenta, 96% Orange and 0% Black) Delta E = 3.1 Using Stabilize Settings In the Stabilize Color Builds Settings dialog (that opens when you click Stabilize Settings...), set the options needed to avoid your particular printing problem: Total color difference should be less than In this field you can set the maximum color difference (in Delta E) between the original color and the color build generated by. After applying all the stabilize settings, the color difference should be less than the one you specify here. Note: If the software can t apply all of the stabilize settings without going over the Total color difference, it will apply some of the settings, as long as the resulting Delta E is within the Total color difference, and within the Color difference defined for each setting applied. Maximum number of inks This option can limit the inks used in the color build to 2, 3 or 4. Note: When using only 2 inks: You need to specify a Delta E tolerance. You can only use the Force to solid option, not Drop Black or Drop Minimum. Force to solid when 71 9

72 9 This option makes the separation with the highest percentage solid (100%), to avoid visible white dots on the print, if either: The Color difference (between the original color and the color build) after applying this option is less than the Delta E value you enter. The highest Ink value is higher than the percentage you enter. Note: This never makes the Black separation solid. Drop Black when This option sets the Black separation to 0%, to avoid visible black dots on the print, if either: The Color difference after applying this option is less than the Delta E value you enter. The Black Ink value is lower than the percentage you enter. Drop Minimum when This option sets the separation with the lowest percentage to 0%, to avoid visible small colored dots on the print, if either: The Color difference after applying this option is less than the Delta E value you enter. The lowest Ink value is lower than the percentage you enter. Note: This never sets the Black separation to 0%. If you wish to do that, use the Drop Black when option. Avoid combinations of Blue and Black if both inks are between With this option you can avoid moiré effects on your print caused by the combination of Blue and Black inks (because of conflicting screen angles). Set the percentage limits within which either Blue or Black should be removed from a color build (the color build is then recalculated to get the lowest possible Delta E without using both Blue and Black). For example, you can set the limits to between 2% and 98% so that if a color build contains between 2% and 98% of Blue and between 2% and 98% of Black, it will be automatically recalculated and changed. Tip: You should choose the limits so that: If either of the inks is outside the limits you specified here, no conflict will occur (as there are too few or too many dots to cause a moiré effect). If the two inks are between the limits you specified, the stabilization will make sure that one of the two inks is removed from the color build. Note: These settings are applied differently to in-gamut and out-of-gamut colors. For in-gamut colors, the settings will only be applied if the resulting Delta E is under the number you specify. For out-of-gamut colors, the Delta E tolerance will be loosened gradually as the color gets away from the gamut. When a color is very far away from the gamut, the stabilize settings will always be applied regardless of the Delta E tolerance (if you chose to stabilize your color builds). 72

73 Editing a Color Build Manually 1. Right-click the ink s Conversion Type and select Custom Values. 2. Edit the ink percentages fields as you wish. Note: You can t edit color builds that are set to remain unconverted (whose Conversion Type column shows Keep in output). The Delta E value is updated automatically. Refining a Color Build You can refine the color builds by fixing one or more ink percentage(s) and letting the software recalculate the other percentages accordingly. 1. Select the spot color whose color build you want to refine in the Settings for Spot Color Linework dialog, and click. This opens the Refine dialog, that shows a preview of: 1. the Original Ink: the spot color to convert, 2. the Best Match: the color build with the lowest possible delta E, 3. the Current Values: the color build currently saved in your color strategy (depending on what you have set in the Color Builds list, this can be the best match, a stabilized color build, custom values...). 4. the New Values: the color build as it will be after refining it (before you start refining, it shows the same values as the Current Values). Note: For best results, your monitor should be calibrated. Under the preview, you can see the ink percentages of those color builds, the Delta E differences with the original color, and the Lab/LCH values of the original ink and the different color builds. 2. To change a certain value, select its box in the Fix Values row, then edit it in the New Values row. You can fix several values, or all the values if you want. The software will recalculate all the other values (including the Lab*/LCH* values) to give a new color build (in the New Values row). 73 9

74 9 3. If you are not satisfied with the result, you can either: Reset to Best Match. Reset to Stabilized and Fix. Note: This will only reset the build to the stabilized values if it was stabilized. Otherwise it will reset it to the best match values (and fix all the values). 4. When you are satisfied with the result, click OK. Keeping an Ink Unconverted If you don t want to convert a certain ink using your color strategy, click its Conversion Type and select Keep in output. 74

75 10. Converting Files to Expanded Gamut Printing in ArtPro If you are using ArtPro, you can convert your files to expanded gamut printing directly within ArtPro, without a need for an Automation Engine Server (especially if you are working with a low number of files to convert). If you also have an Automation Engine Server, you can use ArtPro to test the conversion on a few files, and if necessary tweak the conversion of specific inks, before automating your workflow with Automation Engine. When converting files to expanded gamut printing using ArtPro's functionality: you start from the color strategy you created in the Color Engine Pilot, if necessary, you can define custom settings for each file to convert and/or tweak the conversion of specific inks How to Convert your ArtPro File to Expanded Gamut Printing 1. Open the file to convert in ArtPro. 2. Go to Prepress > to open the conversion dialog. This dialog has four tabs in which you can choose conversion settings: Input, CMYK, Spot Colors and Output (the Input and Output tabs contain the same settings, that you only need to set once). 3. In the Input (or Output) tab, select the output profile and color strategy to use. See Settings for Input and Output on page In the CMYK tab, define how to convert your file's CMYK linework and images. See Settings for CMYK Linework and Images on page In the Spot Colors tab, define how to convert your file's spot color linework and images. See Settings for Spot Color Linework and Images on page If your file contains complex blend modes, you can flatten it to make sure the colors are converted accurately (select Flatten document)

76 10 7. Click Convert Settings for Input and Output In the Input (or Output) tab: 1. Choose your press' Output Profile. You can select any multicolor Esko or ICC profiles* (5, 6 or 7 ink profiles containing CMYK inks) defined in your color database, but we recommend that you profile your press with the Profile Creator and use that profile here. 2. Select the Color Strategy you have made in the Color Engine Pilot with that output profile (or the strategy you want to use if you have made several strategies with that output profile). You can see the inks used in your color strategy s input and output profiles. Tip: If your color strategy's input profile is an Esko Profile, you can save it as a CMYK ICC profile, to use as the Working Color Space* Profile in ArtPro, or to use it in other applications (for example Adobe Photoshop). However, any non-cmyk color information that it contains will be lost Settings for CMYK Linework and Images In the CMYK tab, you can define how to convert your file's CMYK linework and images (if you want to tweak some of the CMYK conversion settings defined in your color strategy for that particular file). 1. Select Convert Images if you want to convert CMYK images. 2. Select Convert Linework if you want to convert CMYK linework. 3. In Conversion Settings, you can adjust the CMYK conversion settings from the color strategy to convert your particular file if desired (for example if this is a very different file than most of the files you usually process). If you are working with a linear color strategy (that uses your press profile as both input and output profile), and you have made an device link for your press profile, you can select it in Device Link to adjust the CMYK conversion. 4. If you didn't make a device link, the Device Link field will show <Automatic>, and you can define other Conversion Settings to make a custom (but limited) device link on the spot. Attention: This gives less color accuracy than using an existing device link. This is only possible if you are working with an Esko output profile. If you are working with an ICC output profile, it will convert your colors according to the information in this profile's B2A tag. The B2A tag is the part of the ICC profile used to convert color data into this profile. a) In Gamut Mapping, choose between Closest Color (Classic) and Constant Hue. 76

77 See Gamut Mapping on page 63. b) Use the Output Channels option to define how to simulate the CMYK of the source profile using the destination profile. See Output Channels on page 63. c) Choose a Black Generation mode to determine the CMY to Black balance in your converted CMYK objects (only if you have chosen to Generate only CMYK in Output Channels). See Black Generation on page 64. Tip: You can use Revert to go back to the default settings Settings for Spot Color Linework and Images Use the settings in the Spot Colors tab to define how to convert spot colors to the channels of your output profile (if you want to tweak some of the spot color conversion settings defined in your color strategy for that particular file). You can set default conversion settings, that will apply to all spot colors in your file, but also finetune how specific spot colors are converted. Based on what you define, the application will calculate a Color Build* for each spot color, which is a combination of percentages of the output profile's channels that will be used to print that spot color. Defining Default Conversion Settings You can set Default Conversion Settings, that will apply to all spot colors in your file: 1. If you sometimes have unwanted printing effects on the press (for example with small dots of a dark ink being visible, or moiré), you can set specific options to avoid this. Select Stabilize Color Builds, click Stabilize Settings... and select the options needed to avoid your particular problem. See Stabilizing the Color Builds on page 70 and Using Stabilize Settings on page 71 for details. 2. Choose if you want to: Convert Opaque Inks or not. Convert Unregistered Inks (inks that are not in the color database) or not. 3. If you are working with an Esko output profile, you can also choose a Black Generation mode (see Black Generation on page 81). 4. Choose the Delta E Formula* you want to use. 5. After changing any of the Default Conversion Settings, click the Reapply Conversion Settings button to recalculate the spot colors conversion based on your new settings

78 10 Stabilizing the Color Builds Unwanted Printing Effects When using CMYK or a multicolor ink set to reproduce spot colors on press, you may sometimes have unwanted printing effects, due to the way different ink angles interact with each other (moiré), but also sometimes due to specific ink percentages. In fact, using very low or very high percentages of one of the inks can cause the resulting color to not have a smooth appearance, and even sometimes to have visible dots or visible holes. This can be especially problematic when reproducing skin tones: using a low percentage of black in the color build can sometimes cause "peppering" of the skin tone. Avoiding these Effects by Stabilizing Color Builds To avoid such problems, you can tweak the color builds used to reproduce spot colors, using settings to "stabilize" them. You can for example: Make an ink with a very high percentage (close to 100%) solid, to avoid small holes. Remove an ink with a very low percentage (close to 0%) from color builds, to avoid small dots. Avoid combining two particular inks, to avoid moiré. The application then recalculates the color builds, taking those settings into account. In the example below, you can see that while it is a lot better than printing with CMYK, the best CMYKOGV color match for the Pantone color (the color build with the lowest Delta E) doesn't give the best result on press (especially for flexo printing). In this case, you can get a much better printed result by making the separation with the highest percentage (Magenta) solid, and eliminating the separation with the lowest percentage (Black). Spot color to reproduce Possible color builds CMYK color build (89% Magenta, 81% Yellow and 0% Black) Delta E = 10.6 Best color match with CMYKOGV (98% Magenta, 84% Orange and 3% Black) 78

79 Spot color to reproduce Possible color builds Delta E = 2.3 Best printable match with CMYKOGV (100% Magenta, 96% Orange and 0% Black) Delta E = 3.1 Using Stabilize Settings In the Stabilize Color Builds Settings dialog (that opens when you click Stabilize Settings...), set the options needed to avoid your particular printing problem: Total color difference should be less than In this field you can set the maximum color difference (in Delta E) between the original color and the color build generated by. After applying all the stabilize settings, the color difference should be less than the one you specify here. Note: If the software can t apply all of the stabilize settings without going over the Total color difference, it will apply some of the settings, as long as the resulting Delta E is within the Total color difference, and within the Color difference defined for each setting applied. Maximum number of inks This option can limit the inks used in the color build to 2, 3 or 4. Note: When using only 2 inks: You need to specify a Delta E tolerance. You can only use the Force to solid option, not Drop Black or Drop Minimum. Force to solid when 79 10

80 10 This option makes the separation with the highest percentage solid (100%), to avoid visible white dots on the print, if either: The Color difference (between the original color and the color build) after applying this option is less than the Delta E value you enter. The highest Ink value is higher than the percentage you enter. Note: This never makes the Black separation solid. Drop Black when This option sets the Black separation to 0%, to avoid visible black dots on the print, if either: The Color difference after applying this option is less than the Delta E value you enter. The Black Ink value is lower than the percentage you enter. Drop Minimum when This option sets the separation with the lowest percentage to 0%, to avoid visible small colored dots on the print, if either: The Color difference after applying this option is less than the Delta E value you enter. The lowest Ink value is lower than the percentage you enter. Note: This never sets the Black separation to 0%. If you wish to do that, use the Drop Black when option. Avoid combinations of Blue and Black if both inks are between With this option you can avoid moiré effects on your print caused by the combination of Blue and Black inks (because of conflicting screen angles). Set the percentage limits within which either Blue or Black should be removed from a color build (the color build is then recalculated to get the lowest possible Delta E without using both Blue and Black). For example, you can set the limits to between 2% and 98% so that if a color build contains between 2% and 98% of Blue and between 2% and 98% of Black, it will be automatically recalculated and changed. Tip: You should choose the limits so that: If either of the inks is outside the limits you specified here, no conflict will occur (as there are too few or too many dots to cause a moiré effect). If the two inks are between the limits you specified, the stabilization will make sure that one of the two inks is removed from the color build. Note: These settings are applied differently to in-gamut and out-of-gamut colors. For in-gamut colors, the settings will only be applied if the resulting Delta E is under the number you specify. For out-of-gamut colors, the Delta E tolerance will be loosened gradually as the color gets away from the gamut. When a color is very far away from the gamut, the stabilize settings will always be applied regardless of the Delta E tolerance (if you chose to stabilize your color builds). 80

81 Black Generation You can choose a Black Generation mode to define the level of black you want when converting your file. Black Generation* determines how much Black versus how much C / M / Y is used in the converted file. It doesn t affect the Orange / Green / Blue generation or the final (composite) image. Predefined Black Generation Modes Maximal Black generates the highest possible amount of black. More black and less of other inks are used to reproduce the file's colors. This may be cheaper to print and avoids color casts. Map Black on Black converts black separately from CMY, and maps the black channel of the source profile onto the black channel of the destination profile. This means that objects that are black in the source profile will still be black (with no CMY) in the destination profile. So for example black text and barcodes will stay 100% black, and black gradients won't have color casts. However, the general level of black may change slightly due to dot gain

82 10 Note: This black generation mode is less color accurate for the other colors in your file (for example for objects made of CMY, or overprints of CMY+K)! Minimal Black generates the lowest possible amount of black, so black is used only in the shadows. It is sometimes also called "skeleton black". In the example below, you can see that very little black is used to reproduce the file's colors, which are made mostly of CMY. 82

83 Note: We recommend that you: use Minimal Black if you are printing mostly light colors, so that there is no graininess or "peppering", for example in skin tones (as black is only used in the shadows). don't use Minimal Black if you are printing mostly dark colors, especially when printing on a substrate that can't support the large amounts of inks needed for printing dark colors with for example CMY. Attention: Make sure your inks are stable when using Minimal Black, as a shift in your inks may cause color casts (for example if you get a new batch of Cyan ink that has much stronger pigments than the previous batch, there can be a Cyan color cast when printing with Minimal Black). Custom Black Generation Modes If you have defined custom black generation modes in Color Engine Pilot, you will be able to select them here (they will be at the bottom of the Black Generation list). Changing Conversion Settings for Individual Colors The Color builds list shows the conversion values calculated for the spot colors in your file. For each spot color in your file, you can see: a patch showing the original color (at left) and the converted color (at right), the ink and ink book name, the type of conversion that will be used. This is either: Stabilized if the color builds could be stabilized according to the options you set (see Using Stabilize Settings on page 71). Best Match (the color builds with the lowest possible delta E) if you are not using stabilize settings, or if these color builds did not need to be stabilized. the color build values (the percentages of each output ink that will be used), the Delta E between the original color and the color build. Tip: To display the color builds with the highest Delta E at the top of the list, click the Delta E column twice. If necessary, you can edit individual color builds in one of the following ways: 1. If you don t want to convert a certain spot color, click its Conversion Type and select Do not convert. 2. If desired, you can also click the percentages and edit them manually. The Conversion Type then shows Custom Values. The Delta E value is updated automatically. Note: You can t edit color builds that are set to remain unconverted (whose Conversion Type column shows Do not convert). 3. You can also compare Best Match and edited ink percentages and refining color builds. See Refining a Color Build on page

84 10 Refining a Color Build You can refine the color builds by fixing one or more ink percentage(s) and letting the software recalculate the other percentages accordingly. 1. Select the spot color whose color build you want to refine in the Settings for Spot Color Linework dialog, and click. This opens the Refine dialog, that shows a preview of: 1. the Original Ink: the spot color to convert, 2. the Best Match: the color build with the lowest possible delta E, 3. the Current Values: the color build currently saved in your color strategy (depending on what you have set in the Color Builds list, this can be the best match, a stabilized color build, custom values...). 4. the New Values: the color build as it will be after refining it (before you start refining, it shows the same values as the Current Values). Note: For best results, your monitor should be calibrated. Under the preview, you can see the ink percentages of those color builds, the Delta E differences with the original color, and the Lab/LCH values of the original ink and the different color builds. 2. To change a certain value, select its box in the Fix Values row, then edit it in the New Values row. You can fix several values, or all the values if you want. The software will recalculate all the other values (including the Lab*/LCH* values) to give a new color build (in the New Values row). 3. If you are not satisfied with the result, you can either: Reset to Best Match. Reset to Stabilized and Fix. Note: This will only reset the build to the stabilized values if it was stabilized. Otherwise it will reset it to the best match values (and fix all the values). 4. When you are satisfied with the result, click OK. 84

85 Adding Custom Converted Colors to the Color Strategy If the color build for a spot color in your file was already saved in your color strategy, you can see a green check next to it in the Color builds list. To save another color build in your color strategy, select it in the Color builds list then click Add to Color Strategy. You can also right-click a color build and select Add to Color Strategy. This color build now has a grey check and the message This Color Build will be added to the Color Strategy at the bottom of the dialog. The next time you need to convert this spot color, this color build will be suggested by default. If you have edited a saved color build, you will see a yellow warning icon next to it. You can still revert it to what it was in the color strategy if desired, by right-clicking it and selecting Get from Color Strategy. If you want to remove a color build from the color strategy, select it and click Remove from Color Strategy (or right-click it and select Remove from Color Strategy). To revert a color build to what it was after applying your Default Conversion Settings, right-click it and select Reapply Conversion Settings

86 Converting Files to Expanded Gamut Printing in PackEdge If you are using PackEdge, you can convert your files to expanded gamut printing directly within PackEdge, without a need for an Automation Engine Server (especially if you are working with a low number of files to convert). If you also have an Automation Engine Server, you can use PackEdge to test the conversion on a few files, and if necessary tweak the conversion of specific inks, before automating your workflow with Automation Engine. When converting files to expanded gamut printing using PackEdge's functionality: you start from the color strategy you created in the Color Engine Pilot, if necessary, you can define custom settings for each file to convert and/or tweak the conversion of specific inks How to Convert your File to Expanded Gamut Printing 1. Open the file to convert in PackEdge. 2. Go to Production >... to open the conversion dialog. This dialog has four tabs in which you can choose conversion settings: Input, CMYK, Spot Colors and Output (the Input and Output tabs contain the same settings, that you only need to set once). 3. In the Input tab, select the profiles and the color strategy to use. See Settings for Input and Output on page In the CMYK tab, define how to convert your file's CMYK linework and images. See Settings for CMYK Linework and Images on page In the Spot Colors tab, define how to convert your file's spot color linework and images. See Settings for Spot Color Linework and Images on page If your file contains complex blend modes, you can flatten it to make sure the colors are converted accurately (select Flatten document). 86

87 7. Click Convert Settings for Input and Output In the Input (or Output) tab: 1. Choose your press' Output Profile. You can select any multicolor Esko or ICC profiles* (5, 6 or 7 ink profiles containing CMYK inks) defined in your color database, but we recommend that you profile your press with the Profile Creator and use that profile here. 2. Select the Color Strategy you have made in the Color Engine Pilot with that output profile (or the strategy you want to use if you have made several strategies with that output profile). You can see the inks used in your color strategy s input and output profiles. Tip: If your color strategy contains an Esko Profile as input profile, you can save it as a CMYK ICC profile, to use it in other applications (for example as the Working Color Space* profile in ArtPro, or in Adobe Photoshop). However, any non-cmyk color information that it contains will be lost Settings for CMYK Linework and Images In the CMYK tab, you can define how to convert your file's CMYK linework and images (if you want to tweak some of the CMYK conversion settings defined in your color strategy for that particular file). 1. Select Convert Images if you want to convert CMYK images. 2. Select Convert Linework if you want to convert CMYK linework. 3. In Conversion Settings, you can adjust the CMYK conversion settings from the color strategy to convert your particular file if desired (for example if this is a very different file than most of the files you usually process). If you are working with a linear color strategy (that uses your press profile as both input and output profile), and you have made an device link for your press profile, you can select it in Device Link to adjust the CMYK conversion. 4. If you didn't make a device link, the Device Link field will show <Automatic>, and you can define other Conversion Settings to make a custom (but limited) device link on the spot. Attention: This gives less color accuracy than using an existing device link. This is only possible if you are working with an Esko output profile. If you are working with an ICC output profile, it will convert your colors according to the information in this profile's B2A tag. The B2A tag is the part of the ICC profile used to convert color data into this profile. a) In Gamut Mapping, choose between Closest Color (Classic) and Constant Hue

88 11 See Gamut Mapping on page 63. b) Use the Output Channels option to define how to simulate the CMYK of the source profile using the destination profile. See Output Channels on page 63. c) Choose a Black Generation mode to determine the CMY to Black balance in your converted CMYK objects (only if you have chosen to Generate only CMYK in Output Channels). See Black Generation on page 64. Tip: You can use Revert to go back to the default settings Settings for Spot Color Linework and Images Use the settings in the Spot Colors tab to define how to convert spot colors to the channels of your output profile (if you want to tweak some of the spot color conversion settings defined in your color strategy for that particular file). You can set default conversion settings, that will apply to all spot colors in your file, but also finetune how specific spot colors are converted. Based on what you define, the application will calculate a Color Build* for each spot color, which is a combination of percentages of the output profile's channels that will be used to print that spot color. Defining Default Conversion Settings You can set Default Conversion Settings, that will apply to all spot colors in your file: 1. If you sometimes have unwanted printing effects on the press (for example with small dots of a dark ink being visible, or moiré), you can set specific options to avoid this. Select Stabilize Color Builds, click Stabilize Settings... and select the options needed to avoid your particular problem. See Stabilizing the Color Builds on page 70 and Using Stabilize Settings on page 71 for details. 2. Choose if you want to: Convert Opaque Inks or not. Convert Unregistered Inks (inks that are not in the color database) or not. 3. If you are working with an Esko output profile, you can also choose a Black Generation mode (see Black Generation on page 81). 4. Choose the Delta E Formula* you want to use. 5. After changing any of the Default Conversion Settings, click the Reapply Conversion Settings button to recalculate the spot colors conversion based on your new settings. 88

89 Stabilizing the Color Builds Unwanted Printing Effects When using CMYK or a multicolor ink set to reproduce spot colors on press, you may sometimes have unwanted printing effects, due to the way different ink angles interact with each other (moiré), but also sometimes due to specific ink percentages. In fact, using very low or very high percentages of one of the inks can cause the resulting color to not have a smooth appearance, and even sometimes to have visible dots or visible holes. This can be especially problematic when reproducing skin tones: using a low percentage of black in the color build can sometimes cause "peppering" of the skin tone. Avoiding these Effects by Stabilizing Color Builds To avoid such problems, you can tweak the color builds used to reproduce spot colors, using settings to "stabilize" them. You can for example: Make an ink with a very high percentage (close to 100%) solid, to avoid small holes. Remove an ink with a very low percentage (close to 0%) from color builds, to avoid small dots. Avoid combining two particular inks, to avoid moiré. The application then recalculates the color builds, taking those settings into account. In the example below, you can see that while it is a lot better than printing with CMYK, the best CMYKOGV color match for the Pantone color (the color build with the lowest Delta E) doesn't give the best result on press (especially for flexo printing). In this case, you can get a much better printed result by making the separation with the highest percentage (Magenta) solid, and eliminating the separation with the lowest percentage (Black). Spot color to reproduce Possible color builds CMYK color build (89% Magenta, 81% Yellow and 0% Black) Delta E = 10.6 Best color match with CMYKOGV (98% Magenta, 84% Orange and 3% Black) 89 11

90 11 Spot color to reproduce Possible color builds Delta E = 2.3 Best printable match with CMYKOGV (100% Magenta, 96% Orange and 0% Black) Delta E = 3.1 Using Stabilize Settings In the Stabilize Color Builds Settings dialog (that opens when you click Stabilize Settings...), set the options needed to avoid your particular printing problem: Total color difference should be less than In this field you can set the maximum color difference (in Delta E) between the original color and the color build generated by. After applying all the stabilize settings, the color difference should be less than the one you specify here. Note: If the software can t apply all of the stabilize settings without going over the Total color difference, it will apply some of the settings, as long as the resulting Delta E is within the Total color difference, and within the Color difference defined for each setting applied. Maximum number of inks This option can limit the inks used in the color build to 2, 3 or 4. Note: When using only 2 inks: You need to specify a Delta E tolerance. You can only use the Force to solid option, not Drop Black or Drop Minimum. Force to solid when 90

91 This option makes the separation with the highest percentage solid (100%), to avoid visible white dots on the print, if either: The Color difference (between the original color and the color build) after applying this option is less than the Delta E value you enter. The highest Ink value is higher than the percentage you enter. Note: This never makes the Black separation solid. Drop Black when This option sets the Black separation to 0%, to avoid visible black dots on the print, if either: The Color difference after applying this option is less than the Delta E value you enter. The Black Ink value is lower than the percentage you enter. Drop Minimum when This option sets the separation with the lowest percentage to 0%, to avoid visible small colored dots on the print, if either: The Color difference after applying this option is less than the Delta E value you enter. The lowest Ink value is lower than the percentage you enter. Note: This never sets the Black separation to 0%. If you wish to do that, use the Drop Black when option. Avoid combinations of Blue and Black if both inks are between With this option you can avoid moiré effects on your print caused by the combination of Blue and Black inks (because of conflicting screen angles). Set the percentage limits within which either Blue or Black should be removed from a color build (the color build is then recalculated to get the lowest possible Delta E without using both Blue and Black). For example, you can set the limits to between 2% and 98% so that if a color build contains between 2% and 98% of Blue and between 2% and 98% of Black, it will be automatically recalculated and changed. Tip: You should choose the limits so that: If either of the inks is outside the limits you specified here, no conflict will occur (as there are too few or too many dots to cause a moiré effect). If the two inks are between the limits you specified, the stabilization will make sure that one of the two inks is removed from the color build. Note: These settings are applied differently to in-gamut and out-of-gamut colors. For in-gamut colors, the settings will only be applied if the resulting Delta E is under the number you specify. For out-of-gamut colors, the Delta E tolerance will be loosened gradually as the color gets away from the gamut. When a color is very far away from the gamut, the stabilize settings will always be applied regardless of the Delta E tolerance (if you chose to stabilize your color builds)

92 11 Black Generation You can choose a Black Generation mode to define the level of black you want when converting your file. Black Generation* determines how much Black versus how much C / M / Y is used in the converted file. It doesn t affect the Orange / Green / Blue generation or the final (composite) image. Predefined Black Generation Modes Maximal Black generates the highest possible amount of black. More black and less of other inks are used to reproduce the file's colors. This may be cheaper to print and avoids color casts. Map Black on Black converts black separately from CMY, and maps the black channel of the source profile onto the black channel of the destination profile. This means that objects that are black in the source profile will still be black (with no CMY) in the destination profile. So for example black text and barcodes will stay 100% black, and black gradients won't have color casts. However, the general level of black may change slightly due to dot gain. 92

93 Note: This black generation mode is less color accurate for the other colors in your file (for example for objects made of CMY, or overprints of CMY+K)! Minimal Black generates the lowest possible amount of black, so black is used only in the shadows. It is sometimes also called "skeleton black". In the example below, you can see that very little black is used to reproduce the file's colors, which are made mostly of CMY

94 11 Note: We recommend that you: use Minimal Black if you are printing mostly light colors, so that there is no graininess or "peppering", for example in skin tones (as black is only used in the shadows). don't use Minimal Black if you are printing mostly dark colors, especially when printing on a substrate that can't support the large amounts of inks needed for printing dark colors with for example CMY. Attention: Make sure your inks are stable when using Minimal Black, as a shift in your inks may cause color casts (for example if you get a new batch of Cyan ink that has much stronger pigments than the previous batch, there can be a Cyan color cast when printing with Minimal Black). Custom Black Generation Modes If you have defined custom black generation modes in Color Engine Pilot, you will be able to select them here (they will be at the bottom of the Black Generation list). Changing Conversion Settings for Individual Colors The Color builds list shows the conversion values calculated for the spot colors in your file. For each spot color in your file, you can see: a patch showing the original color (at left) and the converted color (at right), the ink and ink book name, the type of conversion that will be used. This is either: Stabilized if the color builds could be stabilized according to the options you set (see Using Stabilize Settings on page 71). Best Match (the color builds with the lowest possible delta E) if you are not using stabilize settings, or if these color builds did not need to be stabilized. the color build values (the percentages of each output ink that will be used), the Delta E between the original color and the color build. Tip: To display the color builds with the highest Delta E at the top of the list, click the Delta E column twice. If necessary, you can edit individual color builds in one of the following ways: 1. If you don t want to convert a certain spot color, click its Conversion Type and select Do not convert. 2. If desired, you can also click the percentages and edit them manually. The Conversion Type then shows Custom Values. The Delta E value is updated automatically. Note: You can t edit color builds that are set to remain unconverted (whose Conversion Type column shows Do not convert). 3. You can also compare Best Match and edited ink percentages and refining color builds. See Refining a Color Build on page

95 Refining a Color Build You can refine the color builds by fixing one or more ink percentage(s) and letting the software recalculate the other percentages accordingly. 1. Select the spot color whose color build you want to refine in the Settings for Spot Color Linework dialog, and click. This opens the Refine dialog, that shows a preview of: 1. the Original Ink: the spot color to convert, 2. the Best Match: the color build with the lowest possible delta E, 3. the Current Values: the color build currently saved in your color strategy (depending on what you have set in the Color Builds list, this can be the best match, a stabilized color build, custom values...). 4. the New Values: the color build as it will be after refining it (before you start refining, it shows the same values as the Current Values). Note: For best results, your monitor should be calibrated. Under the preview, you can see the ink percentages of those color builds, the Delta E differences with the original color, and the Lab/LCH values of the original ink and the different color builds. 2. To change a certain value, select its box in the Fix Values row, then edit it in the New Values row. You can fix several values, or all the values if you want. The software will recalculate all the other values (including the Lab*/LCH* values) to give a new color build (in the New Values row). 3. If you are not satisfied with the result, you can either: Reset to Best Match. Reset to Stabilized and Fix. Note: This will only reset the build to the stabilized values if it was stabilized. Otherwise it will reset it to the best match values (and fix all the values). 4. When you are satisfied with the result, click OK