Creating a new color

The easiest way to create a new color is to click the New (+) button on the Colors palette — this opens the Edit Color dialog box, shown in Figure 15-1. However, you can get to this same dialog box from the New button in the Edit ⇒ Color dialog box or any color drop-down menu in the Measurements palette. Then follow these steps:

1. If you’re creating a color from the first few color models (RGB, HSB, LAB, CMYK, or Multi-Ink), enter a name of your choice in the Name field.

   Give it a name that makes sense for your project, such as [client] Blue. Otherwise, skip the Name field because when you choose a color from any of the other color models, the Name field is filled in for you.

2. Choose a color Model, such as RGB, CMYK, Pantone Solid Coated, or Trumatch.

   Your choice will change the selection options on the right side of the Edit Color dialog box, as follows:

   • For nonbranded colors: If you choose one of the non-branded color models, such as RGB or CMYK, use the sliders or enter values to define your color. Drag the vertical slider to brighten or darken the selected color, and drag the dot inside the color wheel to change its hue.
   • For commercial colors: If you choose one of the commercial color matching systems such as Pantone or Trumatch, click one of the color swatches or type in its number to choose a color. (Click the Stacked View icon above the OK button to view the colors in a list instead of a grid.) The name of the swatch is filled into the Name field for you and a larger swatch appears at bottom left.
   • For Multi-Ink: The oddball in this list is Multi-Ink, which is incredibly useful. Multi-Ink lets you define a color that uses tint percentages of the other inks in your project. For example, a spot color with a percentage of one or more process (CMYK) inks mixed in.
3. (Optional) If you want your color to print on its own printing plate, select the Spot Color check box.

4. Choose from one of the options in the Halftone drop-down menu if you plan to make a tint of your color.

   Using these options lets you control the way the printing dots are arranged. Unless you have a specific reason to do otherwise, leave it at Process Black.

5. Click OK.

   The color is added to your Colors palette and is available everywhere else that a color can be chosen.

Using the color picker

Instead of choosing a color from a color model, you can also use the Color Picker to grab a color from an imported picture or from any other item in any open QuarkXPress project. Here’s how:

1. Choose Window ⇒ Colors to open the Colors palette, shown in Figure 15-2.
2. Click the Color Picker tool at the bottom left.

3. Click any color that you might want to add from this or another project.

   (It may help to zoom in on the item you’re sampling.) That color is added to the small swatches at the bottom of the Colors palette.

4. To add one of these color picker swatches to the list of colors in your Colors palette, double-click that swatch.

   The Add Color dialog box displays, where you can name the color or edit it.

   To bypass the Add Color dialog box and immediately add a color picker swatch to your Colors palette, Option/Alt-click the Add button at the right of the color picker swatches.

5. To remove a color swatch, click the swatch while holding down Option (Mac) or Alt (Windows).
6. To add all the color picker swatches to the Colors palette, click the Add button at the right of the color picker swatches while holding down Option (Mac) or Alt (Windows).

Applying colors

You can apply colors, tints, and opacity to just about anything you can select in QuarkXPress. After selecting an item or text, select from among the color controls in the Measurements palette or in the Colors palette, as shown in Figure 15-2.

In the Colors palette, note that you can apply a separate color, tint, and opacity to a picture, selected text, frame, or background by clicking the corresponding icon at the top of the palette.

Icons to the right of each color indicate whether that color is in RGB mode or CMYK mode, or is a spot color.

You can convert any color to a spot color by choosing Make Spot from the Colors palette menu.

Editing colors

To edit a color, select it in the Colors palette or in the Edit ⇒ Colors dialog box and click the Edit (pencil) icon. The Edit Color dialog box appears for you to make your changes.

When you create a layout, you choose whether it’s primarily destined for Print or for Digital, and QuarkXPress adds the appropriate basic colors to the Colors palette for you — Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, and Black when you’re working with a Print layout, and Red, Green, and Blue when you’re working with a Digital layout. You can’t edit or delete these default colors.

Duplicating colors

To duplicate a color, do one of the following:

• Select the color in the Colors palette and choose Duplicate from the palette menu.
• Choose Edit ⇒ Colors, and in the Colors dialog box, click Duplicate.

Either way, the Edit Color dialog box appears for you to name your new color or make changes to it.

Deleting or replacing colors

To delete or replace a color, do one of the following:

• Select it in the Colors palette and click the Delete (trash can) icon.
• Choose Edit ⇒ Colors, and in the Colors dialog box, click Delete.

If the color has been used on any items in your layout, a dialog box appears that lets you choose a replacement color for those items.

Appending colors from other projects

To copy all the colors from another project into the current one, do one of these things:

• Choose Edit ⇒ Colors and click Append. Navigate to the other project and click Open. The Append dialog box displays, as shown in Figure 15-3.
• Choose File ⇒ Append, navigate to the other project, and click Open. Choose Colors from the list on the left.

Whichever of these two techniques you use to get to the Append dialog box, you then follow these steps:

1. Click one of the colors in the left column and click the right-pointing arrow to add it to the left column. (Click Include All to add all the colors.)
2. Click the OK button to add the colors in the right column to the current project.

Knocking out and overprinting

The icons in the Knockout area of the Colors palette let you control how an item’s colors are printed. They are specific to the item, not the color, and you should normally leave them at Default. However, if you have a specific printing need for an item’s colors to either overprint or knock out items beneath it, you can apply Knockout or Overprint. Here are the icons, from left to right:

• Default: Applies an appropriate trap value to best print this item when adjacent to another item. It will either spread (expand) the item a tiny amount to overlap the adjacent item, or choke (contract) the item to allow the adjacent item to overlap it.
• Knockout: Punches a hole through everything beneath the item, so that there is no overlap.
• Overprint: Forces the item to print on top of the items beneath it, potentially blending their inks together.

When printing in CMYK, sometimes the black doesn’t look saturated enough. If you have a really important object that needs to look very black, try creating and applying a Rich Black color to it — one that includes a bit of cyan, magenta, and yellow, in addition to 100 percent black. Printing companies vary in their ink preference for a Rich Black, so if you use several printers, or you don't know which printer will be printing your job(s), use 30C 30M 30Y 100K, and then be sure to tell your printer that you used a Rich Black. It’s much easier for prepress operators to change the percentages of a Rich Black to their specifications than it is for them to build and apply one.

Choosing your display profile

Both the Mac and Windows operating systems come with built-in calibration programs, but for best results, you should use an external measuring device such as a colorimeter or spectrophotometer (hand-sized gadgets that clamp onto your monitor and measure the colors it displays). Examples that cost under $100 include Pantone’s ColorMunki Smile and DataColor’s Spyder4Express. More expensive options include DataColor’s SpyderPro and the Pantone i1 Display Pro.

To tell QuarkXPress which display profile to use, open QuarkXPress Preferences, and in the Display section of the Application section, select an option from the drop-down menu to choose your display profile. If you don’t make a selection, QuarkXPress will use whatever profile your computer is currently using.

Soft proofing your layout

To see how your layout will look when output in various ways, choose View ⇒ Proof Output and select an option from the Proof Output menu, shown in Figure 15-5.

If you’re working with a commercial printer, the printer may recommend one of the menu options such as Grayscale 100K, As Is, or In-RIP Separations. But generally you’ll be fine with the first few:

• Grayscale: Converts your colors to gray, which is useful if your layout might be printed on a black-and-white printer.
• Composite RGB: Shows how your colors will look when printed on a printer that uses RGB data, such as a desktop color printer, or in a PDF.
• Composite CMYK: Shows how your colors will look when printed on a four-color commercial press. Normally, use this when sending your project to a commercial press.
• Composite CMYK and Spot: Shows how your colors will look when printed on a four-color commercial press with additional spot color inks. If your project includes spot colors as well as CMYK colors, use this.
• Custom Output Setups: Figure 15-5 shows the “Jay’s weird office printer” option is an output setup created from the profile provided by Epson for a color printer used in Jay’s office. You can learn to create your own custom output setup in the next section.

If you find yourself often soft proofing to the same output setup, you can change QuarkXPress Preferences to always use that output setup when displaying your projects. To do that, go to the Color Manager pane in the Print Layout section in QuarkXPress Preferences and choose your output setup from the Proof Output drop-down menu, as shown in Figure 15-6.

Creating a custom output setup

If you have a profile for a printer you commonly use, you can create your own output setup that will appear in the Proof Output menu. You can then choose this output setup to see how your project will print on that printer. To create your own output setup, follow these steps:

1. Get the profile for your printer and install it on your computer.

   Printer manufacturers usually make the printer profile available on their websites, along with instructions for installing it.

2. Choose Edit ⇒ Color Setups ⇒ Output to open the Default Output Setups dialog box.

   The Default Output Setups dialog box appears.

3. Click the New button.

   The Edit Output Setup dialog box appears, as shown in Figure 15-7.

4. Give your new output setup a name, possibly including the kind of printer and its location in your office.
5. Leave Composite selected in the Mode menu.

6. Choose a color model in the Model menu.

   You usually choose RGB. If the printer is black-and-white, choose Grayscale.

7. In the Profile menu, choose the profile for your printer that you installed in Step 1.

8. Click OK.

   Your new output setup is added to the Proof Output menu.

Sharing color setups

To copy a Source setup from another QuarkXPress project, choose Edit ⇒ Color Setups ⇒ Source and click the Append button. Navigate to the project and choose the Source setups that you want to copy.

To import or export an Output setup, choose Edit ⇒ Color Setups ⇒ Output and click the Import or Export button. This is useful when your printing company provides an output setup for its press.