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Setting up Spot Colors within Sawgrass Print Utility

This article explains how to set up Spot Colors in Sawgrass Print Utility and how to print a color palette for use with Spot Color Replacement.

Spot Color Replacement allows you to select a specific input color value and replace it with a different output color when printing. This can be particularly useful when trying to match specific brand or company logo colors, or when a particular color is not printing as expected and requires further adjustment.

Before you can create or use Spot Colors, you will first need to enable the Spot Colors feature within Sawgrass Print Utility.

Enabling Spot Colours

  1. First, start by selecting Settings.

     
  2. Under the General Tab, tick the option for Enable Spot Colours.


     
  3. A new option will now be available under Custom Color Management "Spot Colors".


Adding a New Swatch

Now that you have enabled Spot Colours, you can create a new swatch or even a new swatch table should you wish to.

  1. From within the Settings menu, select the newly added Spot Colours Tab and then click New Swatch. You have the option to either use RGB, Hex or CMYK colour values.

     
  2. In the example below, we have created a new swatch, named it New Red as well as selected the CMYK colour mode. You will notice that we have set the CMYK input colour values to 20, 100, 100, 0 with an output of values of 20, 100, 90, 0. This means that when Sawgrass Print Utility detects the input value, it will in fact print the Output value. You also have the option to open a colour picker.

     
  3. Once you are happy with the values, click Add to Table. As a note, if you have created a new table, you can select this table prior to click Add to Table.

     
  4. You will now see your new swatch colour in the list.
     
  5. You also have the option to Delete or Create new Swatch Tables using the options listed near the bottom left of the window. This also includes Importing and exporting tables/swatches.
     

Printing a Similar Colour Chart

  1. With all created Colour Swatches, you can also display and print a colour palette with all colours that have a similar colour value. You can do this by simply clicking Find Similar Colour.

     
  2. From here, you can enter your starting Colour value, choose the printer and page size as well the increment. The increment will determine the size of the gaps between colour values. Once you are happy with your selections, hit Print.

     
  3. Once, the Similar Colour Chart has been printed, we recommend you press it to then determine the best output RGB value to replace the current Input RGB value. You will notice above each square is a colour value to help you with this.
     
  4. When you have found the ideal replacement colour value close the Similar Colour Chart window, enter it under the Output value and click Update.

     
  5. If ever you no longer need this colour swatch, you can click Delete Swatch to remove it.

 

Using Spot Colors when Printing

Now that spot colors are enabled, you will also have the option to select a swap table from the Print Settings window. By default, you will see "Sample" unless you have created a new table. When a Swap Table is selected and you are printing spot colors, Sawgrass Print Utility will detect and replace any input colour values with the output colour values from that swap table.