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Color Formats ​

Introduction ​

In Printlane Studio, you can define colors in various places, including:

  • Text layers
  • Background layers
  • Artwork layers
  • Color palettes

You can select a color using the color picker which allows you to adjust hue, saturation and lightness: Default color picker

By default, colors are stored in the web-friendly sRGB format, which is the standard color model for digital displays and web browsers, and ensures accurate color rendering in Printlane Designer. The color values are displayed in hexadecimal format.

Conversion to CMYK ​

In Printlane Designer, colors are always rendered in sRGB, as it's the standard color model supported in web browsers. When exporting customer designs to a PDF file for print production, you can automatically convert all colors to CMYK following your preferred CMYK output profile.

To do so, you can configure a Color Conversion profile in the export settings of your template. This will automatically convert sRGB values to their CMYK equivalents, following the selected profile.

CMYK Process Colors ​

In addition to sRGB, you can configure the color picker to accept CMYK color values, allowing you to enter them directly.

WARNING

CMYK color values will not be converted to the destination profile, but are used as-is when exporting to PDF with a CMYK color conversion profile.

Only use this functionality if you understand how CMYK works and want to specify exact CMYK color values in print production PDF files.

As CMYK colors are specifically designed for print and cannot be displayed on screens, their RGB equivalents are used in Printlane Designer. This ensures that colors appear consistently across all devices.

To enable this functionality, activate these settings:

  1. Studio: Allow to configure CMYK colors in templates Enable to enter specific CMYK color values in templates, which your customers can select in the Designer.
  2. Designer: Allow customers to enter CMYK colors in the color picker Enable to allow customers to enter CMYK color values in the Designer themselves. Activating this setting will also activate setting (1).

After enabling CMYK colors, you can choose the format in the color picker: CMYK color picker

The CMYK color values are only used when exporting to the PDF format with a CMYK Color Conversion profile. If the sRGB conversion profile is selected, the RGB equivalent values of the CMYK colors will be used.

Spot Colors ​

In addition to sRGB and CMYK process colors, Printlane allows to configure Spot Colors such as Pantone / PMS colors. These are used to achieve precise and consistent color matching, vibrant effects like metallic and fluorescent finishes, and cost-effective printing for specific colors that cannot be reproduced accurately with CMYK inks.

FORMAT

The format of spot colors can be set to either sRGB or CMYK values. These color values will not be converted to the destination profile when exporting to PDF, as these values are solely used for on-screen representation and proofing purposes.

Only use this functionality if you understand how Spot colors and separation color spaces work and want to specify named spot colors in print production PDF files.

To enable this functionality, you can activate the following setting:

  1. Studio: Allow to configure spot colors: Enable to allow creating Spot color values in templates.

After enabling the setting, you can choose the Spot color format in the color picker and create spot colors: Spot color picker

A spot color always has a unique name (for example PANTONE 266 C) so it can be uniquely identified in the printing process, ensuring consistent and precise reproduction of the color. It's not possible to define the same spot color name with different color values.