In this article, you will learn
- which prerequisites are required for this Fixup, and
- how to apply this Fixup.
1. Introduction
The Fixup Remove Spot Colors is available in the Workflow. The purpose of this Fixup is to remove a selected Spot Color, including all objects that use this Spot Color.
2. General
The Fixup Delete Spot Colors can be used to remove selected Spot Colors from the Print Item, including all objects that use those Spot Colors.
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 Spot Color, Pantone, HKS or RAL in the area Property.
3. Description
This Fixup can be used to remove selected Spot Colors from a Print Item. Please note that all objects that use the selected Spot Color will be removed. If you only want to remove the Spot Color but keep the objects as "non-drawing" objects, please refer to the advice at the end of the article.
3.1. Prerequisites and Functionality
For the Fixup to perform as intended, the following requirement must be met:
- The Print Item contains at least one Spot Color.
Figure 1: The dialog of the Fixup Delete Spot Coors
The following options are available for deleting Spot Colors:
- 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.
- Selection Mode [2] – select how the Spot Color to be deleted should be identified. The following options are available:
- List – select this option if you want to choose the desired Spot Color from the dropdown menu [3].
- Regular Expression (RegEx) – select this option if you want to search for the desired Spot Color by entering a regular expression. Enter the required character string for the regular expression in the provided field.
- Spot Color [3] – use the dropdown menu to select the Spot Color of the Print Item that should be deleted along with all objects that use this color. The dropdown menu displays only the Spot Colors contained in the file. If the option Regular Expression (RegEx) is selected as the selection mode, enter the regular expression in this field.
3.2. Before/After
To experiment with this function, refer to the sample file "Sample_Remove selected Spot.pdf". The file contains two Spot Colors. The background of the file is colored with the Spot Color "Lilac", which should now be deleted.
After applying the Fixup, the file "Sample_Remove selected Spot_End.pdf" is created. The background has been successfully removed. The values from Figure 1 were used.
Figure 2: Left: Original file; Right: Edited file in which the Spot Color "Lilac" has been removed from the background
Delete Spot Color and Keep Object
To delte only a Spot Color while keeping the affected objects, select the Fixup Rename Spot Colors and enter "None" as the target color name. The objects are then assigned the Spot Color "None" and are therefore retained.
Article update: Workflow 1.20.1 – 04/2025