Managing process and spot colors

When color management is on, any color you apply or create within a color-managed Adobe application automatically uses a color profile that corresponds to the document. If you switch color modes, the color management system uses the appropriate profiles to translate the color to the new color model you choose.

Keep in mind the following guidelines for working with process and spot colors:

• Choose a CMYK working space that matches your CMYK output conditions to ensure that you can accurately define and view process colors.

• Select colors from a color library. Adobe applications come with several standard color libraries, which you can load using the Swatches palette menu.

• (Acrobat, Illustrator, and InDesign) Turn on Overprint Preview to get an accurate and consistent preview of spot colors.

• (Acrobat, Illustrator, and InDesign) Use Lab values (the default) to display predefined spot colors (such as colors from the TOYO, PANTONE, DIC, and HKS libraries) and convert these colors to process colors. Using Lab values provides the greatest accuracy and guarantees the consistent display of colors across Creative Suite applications. If you want the display and output of these colors to match earlier versions of Illustrator or InDesign, use CMYK equivalent values instead. For instructions on switching between Lab values and CMYK values for spot colors, search Illustrator or InDesign Help.

Note: Color-managing spot colors provides a close approximation of a spot color on your proofing device and monitor. However, it is difficult to exactly reproduce a spot color on a monitor or proofing device because many spot color inks exist outside the gamuts of many of those devices.

Source:Adobe