For the Fixup to work as intended, the following conditions must be met:

• The Print Item should contain objects that are white or transparent.
• Technical Colors may be present; these are excluded from the Fixup.

Figure 1: Left: The Basic Settings tab of the Fixup Create White Only Separation; Right: Values in the selected field for the Apply to option

To create a white only separation, the following options are available:

• Templates [1] – the settings selected in the dialog can be saved as a template and subsequently applied to other Articles/Print Items, used within Fixup Chains and applied in the Apply Fixups and Check Print Item and Apply Fixups operations.

Basic Settings

• Origin [2] – select from the drop-down menu which area should be used to create the white separation. The following options are available:
  • ImageBox – all content within the ImageBox is affected by the Fixup. Therefore, make sure that the ImageBox has been applied to the intended box.
  • ImageBox + Bleed – all content within the ImageBox + Bleed is affected by the Fixup.
• Apply to [3] – select from the drop-down menu which objects the Fixup should be applied to. The following options are available:
  • Printed Objects – all printed objects are included in the white separation, all other image content becomes transparent.
  • Non-printing Objects – all white or transparent objects in the file are included in the white separation; all other image content – vectors, text, and images – becomes transparent.
  • Variable Content [8] – select the desired placeholder – Database Field or User-defined Field – from which the value for the selection should be retrieved. The selected field must contain one of the following values for the corresponding option to be applied:
    • Printed_Areas
    • Transparent_Areas
• Create Spot Color [4] – select from the drop-down menu which Spot Color should be used for the white separation. The available Spot Colors are those that have the value Separation specified under Output as in the system-wide Create Spot Color Definition settings.
• Tint Value [5] – reduce the tint value of the Spot Color separation to be created by moving the slider or entering a percentage value.
• Extract Spot Colors from DeviceN [6] – enable this option to separate all Spot Color DeviceN constructs into individual colors. This also allows Technical Spot Colors to be extracted from the DeviceN construct and thus excluded from the conversion to a white only separation.
• Spot Color [7] – if objects have been created using a Spot Color – e. g. a Dieline, Varnish, etc. – they can be excluded from the conversion. To do this, select the respective Spot Color from the drop-down menu.

Figure 2: The Advanced tab of the Create White Only Separation Fixup

Advanced

• Tracing Mode [9] – select from the drop-down menu how precisely the individual objects of the Print Item should be traced to create the white separation. The more intricate the Print Item, the more precisely it should be traced. However, note that more precise tracing also requires significantly more processing time. The following options are available:
  • Inaccurate (fastest) – the objects are traced less precisely – at a resolution of 800 dpi – but faster.
  • Standard (fast) – the objects are traced accurately – at a resolution of 1200 dpi – while still being processed fast.
  • Accurate (slow) – the objects are traced with a high degree of accuracy – at a resolution of 2400 dpi – but take somewhat longer to process.
  • Variable Content [11] – select the desired placeholder – Database Field or User-defined Field – from which the dpi value for the tracing mode should be retrieved. The selected field must contain one of the following values for the mode to be used:
    • 800
    • 1200
    • 2400
• Layer Name [10] – enter the name of the layer on which the white separation should be created. If no separate layer is to be created, remove the name from the input field. For the Variable Content [12], select the desired placeholder – Database Field or User-defined Field – from which the value for the layer name should be retrieved.

Figure 3: Values in the selected field for the Tracing Mode option

To experiment with this function, you can use the sample file "Sample_White only Separation.pdf". The file contains the Venus symbol, created using CMYK black, and the Mars symbol, created using the Spot Color "Spot Black".

After applying the Fixup, the file "Sample_White only Separation_End.pdf" is generated. All printed objects within the ImageBox have been created as a white separation.

Figure 4: Left: Original file; Right: Modified file in which a Spot Color White Separation has been created for all printed objects

Article Update: $PRODUCT_NAME_WORKFLOW 2.3.0 – 10/2026