Using spot color plates with DCS

This page applies to Harlequin v13.1r0 and later; both Harlequin Core and Harlequin MultiRIP.

The DCS replacement code works by drawing separated data from the high-resolution files for each of the separations defined in the main file in turn. All but the first are drawn with overprinting turned on.

If the DCS file set includes separations for spot colors and you are outputting to separations and (Other colors in job) is set to Render in the list in the Edit Style (CSS) dialog, the spot color plates is correctly imaged.

However, if you are printing to a composite color device with a fixed number of colorants, or you are separating the file and have set up the Harlequin RIP not to generate separations for one or more of the spot colors used by the DCS file, it is not possible to merge the spot color data into the process separations. The Harlequin RIP issues a warning that output may be incorrect and does not execute those spot color separations.