How to work with Color Replacement : Inèdit Software

The program has a powerful tool to modify the printing of specific colors. The tool is available from the Control Center or the button on the sidebar and it will allow you to:

Modify the printing of any color of the design without modifying the whole print. For instance, in order to modify a corporative color of a design, which is being printed together with an image, we can give precision to the color of the logotype without modifying the global color of the image.
Assign a determinate color to an ink cartridge or a combination of them. This is particularly useful for printers with more than 4 ink cartridges where it is possible to use the rest of the cartridges for special colors, such as reds, greens, whites, fluorescents, etc. This will allow a part of the design to be printed with fluorescent color, for example, without modifying the rest of it.
Modify the printing of any color of the design, reading the real color of a sample printed in color with a spectrophotometer. Although this is a variation of section 1, the color entry precision is very useful.

To use this option the file (PSD, TIFF, or PDF) opened in a print document requires embedded spot colors to have a replacement reference. Once opened, it will show in the list for 'Color Replacement' in the Properties section, with the values for the original color as well as the modified color.

Detection

Once the spot color is picked it will be shown on the list.
If your document contains multiple spot colors overlapping, then multiple colors will be detected.
If your document does not contain spot colors or has areas that do not have spot colors, then no color will be detected.

Input Color

CIELab: which stands for the spatial coordinates of the color and expresses their values (a,b) and luminosity (L). Although it is a value that is difficult to imagine, there are many colors that are usually expressed this way, since it is a representation of the color that does not depend on any device (printer, screen, scanner, etc.). We have the possibility of entering the values L, a, and b, which can be saved in the spot color replacement library.

RGB (Entry): showing the original color values of Red, Green, and Blue of the input profile. If, for instance, we see a red dominant in the already printed color, we can correct only value R, by lowering it. CMYK (Entry), showing the original color values of Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, and Black of the input profile. As in the previous case, it is possible to correct the color dominants.

In both cases, we can change the values only but not save them in the spot color replacement library, because the different profiles can have a different input profile that can change individually the output color.

Device Colors

Possibility of entering CMYK or RGB values without their being modified by the profile of the exit color, i.e., we will enter a real value which will be sent to the printer. For instance, if we want to obtain a "pure red", we can specify the values: Magenta (M)=100, Yellow (Y)=100.

The 'Apply ink control' option will assign light inks. In case our printer has light inks such as light magenta, grey, etc., we can specify a multichannel replacement color. By default, we must enter the values of all the colors, but by keeping the Automatic Light Inks option activated, the program will be the one to calculate automatically the ink percentages.

Minimizing dE will make the program look for the color with less difference (dE) from the original. For that, it makes an exhaustive search within the printer's profiles.

Gradient calculation

Every spot color replacement can have an independent gradient calculation.

Natural (default) linearises the color to have a smoother transition maintaining the ink tonal characteristics.
Natural (nonlinearized) uses the ink’s own behavior, so we’ll have brusque variations of color.
Emulate linearises the color and adjusts the tone of the gradient to achieve similar results when printing on different machines.

Be aware that direct ink recipes with spot color inks (fluor inks) can be in mode Natural or Natural (nonlinearized).

Add color into the spot color replacement file

Under the Color replacement configuration window, there is the option to add the color replacement configuration under a name. Whenever you want to use that configuration, you can select the name given to it from a drop-down list, in the Color replacement table in the Color tab within the Printer Scheme Manager.

If your document has multiple spot colors listed that should be added to the color table, then select multiple colors with shift and mouse-click, which will enable the option "Add selection" to add colors to the selected color table.

Obtaining Color by Reading from Device

It is possible reading colors directly from a spectrophotometer. This proceeding will add a lot of precision since we will be measuring a color directly from a real sample. Press the Measure... button once the spectrophotometer is correctly placed (consult the list of devices supported by neoStampa to your usual provider). Select the correct device, which is automatically assigned when the device is connected. If necessary, set the communication port where such a device is connected and the parameters for scanning. Press Read! to make the reading once the spectrophotometer's pointer is on the color sample to be measured. This value will be in the color components section.