Creating a Media

To create a new media with a spot ink configuration using the following steps:

1. Highlight your printer and click > Media Manager
2. Click > Configure Devices > Configure Printer Capabilities and enable a spot ink configuration from the ink configuration menu.

Note: Your printer may list several usable ink configurations for spot. These ink configurations have either an "S" or "W", use one that best represents your printers ink configuration.

Now that you've enabled an ink configuration that supports spots, return to Home page within Media Manager and click > Create Profiles > Create Media and begin.

To create a media for spots:

1. Enter the Media Group and Media Name, then click > Next.
2. Select the Ink Configuration from the drop-down menu to one that uses spots i.e. CMYKSS.
3. Select CMYK for the Process Colors option.
4. Click > Spot Color Setup.
5. Click > Insert to add "Spot 1" to the Spot Color Setup dialog.
6. You can highlight "Spot 1" and click > Edit if you want to change the name or preview color of your spot. This is the color that will be used in Preflight to represent the layer.
7. Click > OK . Your media has now been configured for spots.

Next, you can configure layer options and print order before proceeding or go to Ink Restrictions to continue creating this media profile.

Tip: If you're printer has two available spot channels and you want to use white ink in both, you can insert a second spot to be used for your highlight printing. Click > Insert a second time to add "Spot2".

Configuring Layers and Print Order

If your printer uses layers, you'll also see the Configure Layers button. Configuring the layers turns on and off which inks to print. Click > Configure Layers to open this dialog.

The following configuration is an example of printing a white layer first and the color layer second.

Note: The data used in the white layer comes from the spot data found in the image. If you want to auto-generate spot data from your image, use the Spot Layer Tool to create the data for the white layer.

In this example you want to print a white underlay before your print your image data. Configure two layers for your media and customize the print order.

To configure layers:

1. Highlight the Default layer and click > Edit or click > Add for a new layer.
2. Enter a layer name, for example: "White Layer 1" or "Color Layer 1".
3. Check the inks you want to be part of that layer, for example check "Spot1" for the white layer and "CMYK" for the color layer.
4. Select <Print Selected Channels> for the Printing Method. This setting dictates the printer processing activity.

Note: This printing method uses the data found in the image. The other printing methods are used to print flood fills for the selected inks - see the next section titled Printing Methods for more information.

After you've customized your layers, you will see them listed on the Configure Layer dialog. Each layer has a print order number in the Order column. Regardless of the order you added or edited your layers, you can define the correct Print Order.

To reorder layers:

1. Highlight the layer and click > UP or Down until the layer is in the correct print order.
2. Before you click > OK , the last thing you want to consider is which layer you want the label to print.

Note: If your QuickSet is configured to print label information, you can determine which layer will print that information. Because you're dealing with layers you don't want to have the label information print multiple times or on top on itself. The default label color is black regardless of your layer.

How you configure your layers will depend on the final output application. The next section explains the additional printing methods. If you're ready to continue creating a media, skip this section and go to Ink Restrictions.

Additional Printing Methods 

You can configure the media for layers to always be filled and print directly to the printer without opening your image in Preflight and using the Spot Layer Tools.
The other Printing Methods include;

• Fill Selected Channels
• Print Image, Fill Selected Channels

Here are a few examples of when you would select a printing method other than Print Selected Channels.

• Fill Selected Channels - This will fill the layer with the selected ink(s) channel. Use this setting for multi-layer printers that implement a rewind command.

Example: Print a flood fill layer of varnish as your spot and image data as usual (or as generated by Preflight using the Spot Layer Tool only in ProductionHouse).

1. Add two layers in the Configure Layers dialog; one for CMYK (Color Layer) and one for Spot1 (Varnish).
2. Configure the Spot1 layer to use <Fill Selected Channels> and the CMYK layer to use <Print Selected Channels>. Check the appropriate inks used in each the layer.
3. Set the print order for the varnish to print second (2) . This will print the image first and the varnish second (on top).

Tip: If you want to create ICC profiles with a white underlay, we recommend you configure one or more spot layers (Fill Selected) for white depending on the desired opacity for your application and one layer for colors (Print Selected). Once you have configured your layers, set the print order for the white layers to print first. This configures your media and allows you to print your linearization and ICC target swatches directly from Media Manager with a white underlay.

Expected Output: The CMYK layer will print using image data then Spot layer will fill the entire page with that ink channel, creating a flood fill.

• Print Image, Fill Selected (Staggered Heads Only) - This will print the ink (s) selected for the layer and prints the image as usual (or as generated by Preflight). Use this setting for printers with staggered heads.

Example: Print a flood fill layer of white as your spot and image data as usual.

1. Add one layer in the Configure Layers dialog; Spot1 (White Underlay with Color). The fi ll layer and the image will print in the same layer.
2. Configure the Spot1 layer to use <Print Image, Fill Selected>. Check only Spot1 for this layer because this is the only ink you want to be filled.
3. Because this printing method is for staggered heads only and you've only configured one layer, you do not need to defi ne a print order. The actual print order will depend on the physical printer and where the inks are placed in their respective banks.
   

Expected Output: The regular CMYK data is printed as usual and the Spot layer will fill the entire page with the spot ink channel, creating a flood fill.

After you have created a media for spots and configured your mode, the next step in the profiling process is determining Ink Restrictions.

Note: Most of the steps for creating a media with spots are similar to the regular workflow. Please do not attempt these steps unless you have experience creating media profiles. See the general Profiling Workflow and Color Theory sections to review.

Ink Restrictions 

To determine ink restrictions for white:

1. Print and review the default swatch from the Basic tab.
2. Choose a value where the patch does not bleed and enter in that percentage.

If you are printing on clear material make sure the opacity is acceptable as well as the bleed properties. You may find that you will need configure multiple layers as described earlier to get the coverage you desire.
Determine your ink restriction values for your color channels as usual using either the density or chroma method.

Depending on the swatch you reprint to verify your results, the spot channel may not be printed. Click > Next to continue.

Calibration/Linearization

To print the calibration swatch:

1. Click > Print Swatch> Setup> Swatch Option tab.
2. Enable the check box for using the black linearization data for the Spot channel.
3. Select your color device from the drop-down menu and click > print.
4. Once the swatch is dry, click > Read Swatch and Read Swatch again to open the calibration data table.
5. Follow the Strip letter and Patch number until you reach the "Spot" channel - do not read in the white data.
6. The software will automatically fill in information based on the black readings.
7. Click > OK to accept readings and click > Next to continue.
8. Click > Build Linearization as usually and continue on to the Ink Limits step.

Ink Limits

To print the Ink Limits swatch:

1. Click > Print Swatch and determine Ink Limits as usual. Look for bleed in the columns and choose a value where you can eliminate waste ink.
2. Click> Read Swatch and enter in the values in the Basic or Advanced tab.
3. Click > Next to continue on to the ICC step.

ICC

White Ink as a spot color is not used in ICC build process, so you can continue as normal. See Generating an ICC for more details if needed.

To print the ICC swatch:

1. Click > Print Swatch and select your color sampling device.
2. Click > Setup > Options if you want to choose a larger number of swatches for profile accuracy, otherwise click > Print.
3. Click > Read Swatch and read in the ICC data.
4. Click > Options to modify the settings, or click > Build to use the default build options.
5. Create a test Print and click > Next to continue.
6. Click > Finish. This completes the media profiling workflow and you can now use this media within ONYX.

Now that you have a media profile with spots, you may wish to edit and configure this media with different layer options.

To make a copy and edit a media:

1. Within Media Manager > View Media Library.
2. Select the media and click > Copy and rename the media.
3. Highlight the media and click > Edit.

Color_Varnish_PrintOrder.jpg (image/jpeg)
Config_Layer_1.jpg (image/jpeg)
Print_Order.jpg (image/jpeg)
Spot_Color_Setup.jpg (image/jpeg)
White_Color_Layer1.jpg (image/jpeg)
White_Layer1.jpg (image/jpeg)
WhitewColor_No_PrintOrder.jpg (image/jpeg)
WhiteInk.jpg (image/jpeg)