CMYK and soft proof
Screens mix light (RGB); presses mix ink (CMYK). Some screen colors, especially vivid blues, greens, and oranges, simply cannot be reproduced with process inks. This tab shows you what will happen before you pay for a print run.
List colors as CMYK values
Scans every solid fill, stroke, and gradient stop in the selection and shows the CMYK conversion next to each swatch.
The conversion uses maximum black generation (GCR):
- Neutral grays and black become pure K. Black text converts to K100, which is exactly what you want: crisp single-plate text with no registration fringing.
- Total ink coverage never exceeds 300%, the ISO 12647-2 limit for coated stock, so nothing oversaturates the paper.
Large solid black areas look richer on press as C40 M30 Y30 K100. Keep small black text at K100 only. Use a custom color mapping (below) for rich black areas.
Soft proof
Render CMYK soft proof rasterizes the selected frame and simulates coated-stock process inks with a transparent-ink model. Three modes:
- Name
Original RGB- Type
- mode
- Description
What your screen shows today.
- Name
CMYK proof- Type
- mode
- Description
The ink simulation. Vivid RGB blue visibly turns into the darker violet blue that presses actually produce.
- Name
Out of gamut- Type
- mode
- Description
Grays out reproducible pixels and highlights the ones that will shift the most, so you know exactly which parts of the design to adjust.
This is an approximation, not ICC color management. For contract-quality proofs, ask your print house to proof with their profile.
Custom colors: exact recipes for brand colors
On the PDF export tab, add custom color mappings: a specific RGB value converts to the exact CMYK recipe you specify, for example #EE0000 to C0 M100 Y100 K0. Matching includes a small tolerance so anti-aliased edges convert consistently. Use this for logos and brand colors where the ink recipe is contractual.