Adding Spots That Are Not Used in Overprints

If the design uses one or more spot colors that are not overprinting with any other colors, it will be unnecessary to include those colors in an n-channel OpenColor profile. It will not hurt, of course, and works perfectly fine if you are using dynamic profiling. If you prefer static profiling, it means that you will need to create a specific profile for each new job with a new spot color. Instead, you can create "standard" proof profiles that you can use for multiple jobs and flexibly add spot colors in GMG ColorProof. If you are working with traditional spot color printing, you can use a factory-default proof standard or a custom 4-channel proof profile in combination with the spots. If you are working with a fixed ink configuration / ECG, you will need to create only one OpenColor profile per output ink and media combination and add the spots.

Technically, you could do this also by manually creating a spot color profile in GMG SpotColor Editor. If you are using GMG OpenColor to calculate the spot color profile for you, you will not only save time, but you can also greatly benefit from the capabilities available in GMG OpenColor. For example, you can adjust the characterization to your actual printing condition such as the media type, apply manual corrections to the solid or gradation, and so on.

You will need to manually export the spot colors as a spot color database (db3) file and import the file into a custom Spot Color Set in GMG ColorProof. You can then add the spots flexibly to a manual job or you can assign the spot color sets to a workflow, so that they are automatically used when an input document uses the corresponding color channel.

The exported spot color database uses the gamut from the Proofing Condition defined in the project and should be used only with a matching proof printer, media type, and print mode. Make sure to link the spot color set to a matching calibration set. Otherwise, the proofed colors might not be correct.

The gamut file (with the file name extension "csc") corresponding to the proofing condition will be exported to the same target location as the db3 file. This file is for your information only. You will not need it for proofing.

  1. From a Project, in the Inks / Characterization group, in the Characterizations list, select the spot color library you want to export.
  2. If you want to export a subset of spot colors instead of the entire library, you can click the Usage button on the right side and activate only the spot colors you want to export. Please note that the deactivation of spot colors will also affect the project, so be careful when saving the project after the export.
  3. Click the Export Spot Colors as DB3 button on the right side.
  4. Browse your folders and select a target location for the exported file.
    GMG OpenColor will export the activated spot colors of the selected spot color library to a single db3 file. The Tasks dialog box shows the target location and the progress. Depending on the number of spot colors, exporting the db3 file might take some time.
  5. You can close the Tasks dialog box without interrupting the export. You can reopen the dialog box any time by clicking the Tasks button on the top right of the main window.
  6. When the export is finished, import the spot color database (db3) file into a Custom Spot Color Set in GMG ColorProof and link it to a calibration set matching the proofing condition from GMG OpenColor. (Create a new Spot Color Set if required.) See the GMG ColorProof documentation for details on Spot Color Sets.
    The spot color set is now ready to use with any proof standard linked to the same calibration set. When an input document uses a spot color channel with the same name as a spot color in the spot color set and you selected the correct calibration set in the job, the corresponding spot color definition will be used automatically. If the input document uses a different channel name, you can still manually assign the correct spot color (or define rules for an automatic assignment). See the GMG ColorProof documentation for details.