In this article, you will learn
- which prerequisites are required for this Fixup, and
- how to apply this Fixup.
1. Introduction
The Fixup Delete Separation is available in the Workflow. The purpose of this Fixup is to remove selected CMYK Separations from the file. RGB objects must first be converted to CMYK so that the selected Separations can also be deleted in these objects.
2. General
Use the Fixup Delete Separation to delete selected color Separations of objects of any type that are created in CMYK. This means that unused Separations can be easily removed from Process Colors. It is not possible to remove a Spot Color with this Fixup!
Use this Fixup if you only want to use
- the black Separation.
- to delete empty black Separations so that no unnecessary clicks are paid or the print speed is increased.
- to use the black or another Separation from the file as a channel for haptic printing.
- to use the Spot Color Separations of a print file.
You can find this Fixup on the tab Data Preparation of an Article, Order or Production Job by:
- entering the name of the Fixup in the area Filter,
- activating the option Color in the area Category,
- activating the option Delete in the area Action,
- activating the option CMYK in the area Property.
3. Description
With this Fixup selected Process Color Separations and all objects that are colored with them can be deleted. This means that individual parts or the entire Print Item, excluding all Spot Colors, can be removed. In addition, RGB objects must be converted to CMYK and DeviceN Spot Color constructs must be resolved. The reason is that these objects should not generate any Process Color Separation in the output.
3.1. Prerequisites and Functionality
For the Fixup to perform as intended, the following requirements must be met:
- The file contains CMYK Separations.
- Spot Colors can be used, but will not be deleted.
Figure 1: The dialog of the Fixup Delete Separation
To delete Separation select from the following options:
- Templates [1] – settings selected in the dialog can be saved as a template and applied to other Articles/Print Items, as well as used within Fixup Chains and in the Operations Apply Fixups and Check Print Item and Apply Fixups.
- Delete Separations [2] – click the respective Separation to select which Process Color should be deleted. The following options are available:
- Cyan – the complete Cyan Separation with all objects is deleted.
- Magenta – the complete Magenta Separation with all objects is deleted.
- Yellow – the complete Yellow Separation with all objects is deleted.
- Black – the complete Black Separation with all objects is deleted.
- Extract Spot Colors from DeviceN [3] – by clicking this option, all DeviceN Spot Color constructs are separated. This means that the individual object of the CMYK Separation can actually be deleted.
- Convert RGB objects to CMYK [4] – clicking this option converts all RGB objects to CMYK. This means that RGB objects are first converted to CMYK so that all information of the respective process color Separation is deleted.
3.2. Before/After
To experiment with this function, refer to the sample file "Sample_Delete Separation.pdf". The file contains CMYK, RGB, and Spot Color objects. The street was created as the Spot Color "Street", the white clouds were created in RGB and the rest of the Print Items were created in CMYK. All Separations except for the black channel should be deleted.
After applying the Fixup, the revised file "Sample_Delete Separation End" is generated. All Separations except for the black Separation were deleted. All RGB objects were converted to CMYK and therefore also deleted. The values from Figure 1 were used.
Figure 2: Left: Original file; Right: Edited file in which all Separations apart from the Black Separation have been deleted
Article update: Workflow 1.20.1 – 04/2025