Fiery’s support for spot colours via SpotOn, and SpotOn works with a name-matching system. So, if you have a spot colour and can’t make Fiery to accept a spot colour correctly, try changing the name of the spot colour separation in the file to make it match the name of the SpotOn swatch. If you do, Fiery will use the SpotOn colour values.
If names don’t match or the supposed spot colour isn’t set as a separation in the file, the Fiery RIP will cause problems. Sometimes you may run into problems too when transparency flattening is converting a spot colour into a process colour, or when spot colour matching in the Fiery RIP isn’t turned on.
However, there’s a catch. If you are using the Adobe PDF Print Engine (APPE), you can’t edit spot colours. With APPE turned off, you will see your spot colour edits. With APPE turned on, your edits will have no effect.
About Erik Vlietinck
I have seen the exact same thing with APPE and Spot-On with EX RIP, all up to date. Any edits of spot colors will not take when APPE is enabled. When APPE is disabled I can edit Spot colors and and can see the changes.
I believe that you are incorrect in your assessment of Spot On and APPE. It works for me….
You are providing excellent information when you mention that transparency flattening may convert spot colors into process colors with some files, in some workflows. These conversions do not necessarily happen in the tip itself; in many instances, they result from the interaction between the source application and the driver..
However, the statement about APPE not allowing spot color edits is wrong. In most cases, and certainly in all basic cases, Spot-On will work equally well with APPE and with PostScript workflow.
I am curious to know how you came to the conclusion that Spot-On does not work with APPE. Can you let us know, Erik? There are hundreds of different Fiery systems; you may have experimented with one that is not working as intended. Can you describe your test files and how they print was done ?