Screening profiles and devices

A profile is your reusable screening setup: the screen of every separation, the plate curves, the output conventions and, optionally, the platesetter and press it is made for. A job copies its profile's settings when it is created, so later changes to the profile don't change jobs you already made. Curves are the exception until a job starts: see Plate curves.

Open Profiles & curves on the Screening page. Profiles are grouped by press type; curves and devices are listed beside them.

Profiles#

Each press type has one default profile, marked with a star. New job starts on a default profile (with defaults for several press types, the first one listed); each default is marked "(default)" in the menu. Press the empty star of another profile to make it the default of its type. Whenever your team has no Offset sheetfed default, the app creates an "Offset 150 · Euclidean" profile as that default.

New from preset makes a profile from a built-in one. It becomes the default when its press type has none yet. Open a profile to edit it, then press Save. Only team administrators can delete a profile, a curve or a device.

The Press and devices section of a profile holds:

• Press type: Offset sheetfed, Offset web, Newspaper, Flexo or Custom. It decides which default the profile can be, the usual ruling the checks compare against and, for Flexo, the angle check.
• Resolution (dpi): the job's starting resolution, 600 to 5,080 dpi.
• Platesetter and Press: optional devices, see below.
• Tone curve, Press compensation and Plate linearisation: the profile's curve chain, see Plate curves.

Built-in profiles#

The built-in profiles are linear: they ship without curves, because a made-up gain curve would be wrong for your press. Flexo plates usually need a minimum-dot hold ("bump") curve: add one under Curves (for example Flexo bump 2 % or 3 %).

How each separation gets its screen#

The Screens section of a profile lists Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Black, a row Other spots, and any Screen for a named ink rows you add. When a job is created, each separation found in the file gets its screen in this order:

1. A named ink row with the same name (case, spaces, hyphens and underscores ignored: Die-Cut is die cut).
2. A process colour gets its own row.
3. A technical ink is never output (next section).
4. A solid ink prints solid at any tint.
5. Any other spot gets the Other spots screen. Its angle comes from a process colour, in turn: the first spot takes the angle of the first colour under Angle of, in turn (Magenta, then Cyan, then Yellow by default), the second spot the second, and so on, starting again after the last. Each colour's left arrow moves it one place earlier.

Each row can also pick a curve for that separation; Profile curves means the profile's chain. What each column means is on Screens per separation.

Technical and solid inks#

Technical inks are inks that must never reach a plate: die lines, cut and crease lines, glue. They are renamed away before rendering, so they neither print nor knock out the inks underneath. An ink counts as technical when its name is in the list or contains a listed name as whole words: "Kiss-cut" matches Cut, "Cutting Blue" doesn't.

Solid inks are inks that print solid at any tint, such as varnish, coating and foil. They are matched the same way.

Both lists take one name per line (or separated by commas), up to 60 names. New profiles start with:

• technical: CutContour, Cut, Die, Dieline, Die Line, Diecut, Crease, Score, Perf, Perforation, Kiss Cut, Thru-cut, Through Cut, Fold, Glue, Emboss, Deboss;
• solid: Varnish, Coating, Lack, Foil, Spot UV.

A job can still change a spot's role for itself (see Screens per separation).

Devices#

Devices are optional. Add them under Devices with + Platesetter or + Press, then choose them in a profile. A job copies the devices' settings when it is created.

Platesetters#

A platesetter owns the file conventions, so they are set in one place and never applied twice:

A platesetter also fixes Blank plates to Skip: the device has no field for it. In a job that uses a platesetter, compression, polarity, mirror, blank plates and (when set) file names are locked: hover a greyed field to see "Set by the platesetter" and its name.

Presses#

With a press chosen, the viewer shows the ink zone grid when it opens.