Angle: Sets the angle in degrees, at which the selected ink’s halftone screen is rotated.
Simulate Overprint: Enables overprints to be simulated on desktop proofing devices. This option should be off for final output because it is intended for proofing only. This option isn’t available when you select the Composite Leave Unchanged output mode.
Ink Manager: Click to open the Ink Manager dialog box.
Ink Manager
Use the Ink Manager for direct control over the output of each process color separation or spot color overlay. A key feature lets you use ink aliasing to quickly change the relationship between a document’s spot colors and the ink plates generated during color separation or PDF export, independent of the Swatches palette. Changing the ink-to-plate relationship is useful when the customer’s document contains more spot inks than they’ve arranged to print. Without the
Ink Manager, reassigning extra spot colors to print on other plates or converting spot colors to process is not easy. It can require altering the colors in the Swatches palette or in the original versions of placed graphics, which carries the risk of causing unexpected changes in the customer’s design. The Ink Manager provides a sensible solution—you can reassign inks for separations, while original colors are left alone.
You can use the Ink Manager dialog box to reassign spot colors to process separations.
The Ink Manager includes an inks list and options for each ink. The ink options let you reduce the total number of plates by making a spot ink output on another spot or process color plate, or by converting a spot ink to its closest approximation in process color inks. You can’t assign a process ink to another process ink.
Ink list: By default, the ink list contains all inks from the point of view of the Swatches palette.
For example, if a document defines 15 spot colors and also uses process colors, the inks list will contain all of the spot inks, plus the four process inks, or 19 inks total.
Note: The Ink Manager ink list includes all spot inks defined in the Swatches palette, not just the inks actually used by objects in the document. If the inks list contains more inks than expected, the document may contain unused colors. You may want to discuss this with the customer. If necessary, you can reduce the number of plates by using the Ink Alias option (which doesn’t alter colors assigned to objects), or by removing unused swatches using the Swatches palette (which may alter colors assigned to objects).
Except for the ink name, each property displayed in the ink list can be changed in the options area below the ink list. Each ink in the list displays the following properties:
• Ink status icon. Indicates whether the ink is set to be separated as a spot ( ) or process ( ) color. Also indicates whether the ink is aliased to another ink ( ).
• Ink name. Displays the ink name supplied by the Swatches palette.
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• Type. Indicates the trapping characteristics of the ink. The ink types are defined in the Ink options area below.
• Density. Indicates the neutral density of the ink. This option is described in more detail in the
Ink options area.
• Sequence. Indicates the ink’s position in the trapping order for inks. This option is described in more detail in the Ink options area.
Ink options: This section displays the options for the currently selected ink in the list.
• Type. Indicates the trapping characteristics of the ink. An ink can be one of four ink types:
Normal for traditional process inks and most spot inks.
Transparent for clear inks to ensure that underlying items trap. Use this option for varnishes and die lines.
Opaque for heavy, nontransparent inks to prevent trapping of underlying colors but enable trapping along the ink’s edges. Use this option for metallic inks.
OpaqueIgnore for heavy nontransparent inks to prevent trapping of underlying colors and to prevent trapping along the ink’s edges. Use this option for inks that have undesirable interactions with other inks.
• Neutral Density. Indicates the neutral density of the ink. If trapping is on, this value is used by the selected trapping engine to calculate trapping requirements. You can adjust the ink neutral density (ND) values that the selected trapping engine uses to determine the precise placement of traps. The default ND values for process inks are based on the neutral density readings of process ink swatches that conform to industry standards in different parts of the world. For example, the ND values for the U.S. English and Canadian versions of InDesign conform to the Specifications for Web Offset Publications (SWOP) solid ink density values published by the Graphic Arts Technical Foundation of North America. The Density option in the lower half of the dialog box lets you adjust a process ink’s neutral density to match printing industry standards in a different part of the world. See “Adjusting Neutral Density” below.
• Sequence. Indicates the ink’s position in the trapping order for inks. In most cases these settings should only be changed after consulting the press operators.
Note: The ink sequence option does not affect the order in which separations are output, and it has no effect on the order of inks on press. It only describes the ink sequence to the trapping engine for the purpose of calculating traps.
• Ink Alias. Specifies a different spot or process ink on which to print the objects using the selected spot color, providing a way to assign one spot color to output on another plate. For example, if a customer’s document contains process colors and three spot colors, but the job is supposed to run as four process inks plus one spot ink, objects using the two extraneous spot colors can be assigned to use the correct spot ink (or even a process ink) using the Ink
Alias menu. You can assign any spot color to any spot or process ink, but a process color can’t be aliased to any other ink. If the All Spots to Process option is on, it overrides all ink aliases by definition. You can change ink aliasing settings at any time, because they affect only the output. Ink aliasing has no permanent effect on original document colors.
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The spot color Blue 3 is aliased to the PANTONE 2728 C ink. All instances of Blue 3 will now output on the
PANTONE 2728 C plate. The color swatches in the document are otherwise unchanged.
Note: Ink aliasing is among the settings that can be previewed on-screen when you use the
Separations Preview palette.
• All Spots to Process. Subjects all spot colors—regardless of status—to separate into their process color equivalents. It’s available only when spot colors are defined in the document. (To convert an individual spot color to process, click the Ink Status icon for the spot color [ ] so that it changes to a Process Color icon [ ].)
• Use Standard LAB Values for Spots. Affects conversion between spot and process colors.
Historically, spot color swatchbooks contained CMYK values for converting between spot and process color, but many newer swatchbooks also list values in the LAB mode, which provides higher accuracy and a wider gamut. By default, this option is off, which makes
Adobe InDesign CS2 use the same CMYK equivalents as earlier versions of Adobe InDesign.
When this option is on, Adobe InDesign CS2 uses LAB values for spot color conversion, if available. If your workflow depends on the traditional CMYK equivalents, leave this option off.
Note: When you use Ink Manager in the Export PDF dialog box, the Type, Neutral Density, and
Sequence options don’t affect the PDF file. All other Ink Manager options are supported.
Adjusting neutral density. The default ND values for a spot color are derived from its CMYK equivalent. For most spot colors, the ND values of their CMYK equivalents are accurate enough for proper trap creation. Spot inks that are not easily simulated using process inks, however, may need their ND values adjusted so that the trapping engine traps them correctly. By typing new values, you can ensure that an ink that is observed as darker or lighter is perceived that way in
InDesign; the appropriate trap placement is then applied automatically. Changing the neutral density for a spot color only affects how that color will trap. It does not change the appearance of that color in your document.
Note: Neutral Density values should not be changed without consulting the press operators.
The default values are appropriate for most jobs using standard inks. You may want to note the current values before changing them, because there is no way to reset them to the defaults after they are changed (except for clicking Cancel in the Ink Manager). If you need to reset the neutral density values to their defaults, use the settings in the following table.
D E FAU LT N E UTR AL D E N S IT Y S E T TI N G S
Process Cyan
Process Magenta
0.61
0.76
Process Yellow
Process Black
0.16
1.7
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To change the default neutral density settings, do so when no documents are open. Do this by choosing Ink Manager from the Swatches menu, because you cannot choose the Print command when no documents are open.
You can enter neutral density values within the range of .001–10. Use the following guidelines for adjusting neutral density values:
• Metallic and opaque inks. Metallic inks are usually darker than their CMYK equivalents, while opaque inks obscure any ink beneath them. In general, you should set the density values for both metallic and opaque spot colors much higher than their default values to ensure that these spot colors won’t spread. It’s also a good idea to set the metallic density to a higher value than that of Black so that Black does not spread into the metallic spot color.
• Pastel inks. These inks are normally lighter than their process equivalents. You may want to set the density value for these inks lower than their default values to ensure that they do not spread into adjacent darker colors.
• Other spot inks. Some spot colors, such as turquoise or neon orange, are significantly darker or lighter than their CMYK equivalents. You can determine whether this is the case by comparing printed swatches of the actual spot inks to printed swatches of their CMYK equivalents. You can increase or decrease the spot ink’s density value as needed.
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