Inspectors are Settings which can either effect individual files, views of files, or the whole application. They are found in the AVA Menu > Inspectors…
In general, the Overprint Inspector is where important colour settings are controlled, and for most of us, we will set these to be applied throughout the whole AVA application. However, there are times when it is important to view a design under different colour settings. For example, you may need to view a design under the Reflectance 3 overprint method (AVA's standard overprint method) and a custom overprint side by side, and the Overprint Inspector lets you do this.
Customised settings will be embedded within the view or document and saved in the file if you save it in the ava4 file format. If you need to frequently change your Overprint Inspector settings you can leave this window open at all times, giving you immediate access to them.
Overprinting is the combined effect of two or more layers printing over each other to create the effect of more colours and tones within a design. The type of overprint that results depends on the layer transparencies, the tonal values of the layers, the colours, the layer order and other such variables.
View Settings
There are three view settings;
- Application - the selected settings will be used as default for the application
- Document - every document created in AVA has document specific settings applied to it. By default, your Application settings are applied to new AVA files, but if you change the Document Settings and save the file as .ava4, these settings will be embedded into the file. This makes sharing the file incredibly easy, as these settings transport with the file.
The recipient of a file which has document specific settings can chose which settings to apply as the file opens - the Application Settings or the Document Settings. This is done via the File Format Settings .
- View - when choosing the View option, Custom Setting needs to be activated in order to modify the settings. The chosen settings will only be applied to a specific window such as a colourway in the Layout Window, a secondary Design Window or a split view for the same design.
Note: When re-opening a document, only one Design Window opens. This means that settings made on secondary windows will be lost.
When you activate Custom Setting, it makes a copy of the settings currently used and stores them in the selected view settings until further changes are made.
To delete a View or Document setting, simply untick the custom setting box and save the file and .ava4 format.
Example
If you have two colourway objects in a Layout Window, you can set different viewing settings for each object using the Overprint Inspector with the View option selected:
- In the Layout Window, add two colourway objects to the page.
- Select one colourway object on which you wish to apply a different overprinting effect.
- Open the Overprint Inspector preference window and select the View Setting called View.
- Tick Custom Setting and set the Overprint Method to None.
The two identical colourway objects will now be displayed differently due to the different view settings.
Soft Proof
Predicts the closest colour which can be achieved on the printer when the original colour is out of gamut. If Soft Proof is not switched on, some colours may not be reproduced as expected. Soft Proof should always be switched on if accurate colour reproduction is important to you.
Delete16 bit
To view the benefits of 16 bit detail, tick this check box. If you do not use 16 bit layers, you should leave this check box unticked.
DeleteOverprint Method
Selects the colour matching calculation that will be used by the software. The default overprint method is Reflectance 3, this is what we would expect most people to use.
- Reflectance 3, essentially means you are using standard AVA colour management, you will be able to soft proof and see the substrate colour.
- None, means no overprint is shown and no colour management is used, this option is used for printing the profile targets.
- Reflectance 16, is similar to reflectance 3 but uses the full 16 point reflectance curve to calculate the overprinting of colours, this mode can help improve the simulation to your production.
- RGB, is similar to None, but does show overprint of layers. We don't recommend working in this mode, some functions in AVA do not work in this mode.
- XYZ, is a mode that might only be required to reprint legacy files.
You can also make your own custom overprint, a custom overprint can make the overprinting areas in designs simulate what happens in your production more closely.
Note:
If you are interested in optimising the proofing aspect of your designs, you may like to consider the creation of an AVA Custom Overprint for your process. Please contact your AVA Area Commercial Manager for more information on this.
Selects the colour matching calculation that will be used by the software. Of the options available, Reflectance 3 should always be selected if you use AVA Colour and you have a calibrated system. Reflectance 3 considers 3 wavelength bands when calculating overprints. Reflectance 16 uses 16 wavelength bands. This is more accurate at predicting overprint results because it has a higher resolution in the wavelength domain, which on slow (old) CPU’s can be slower to calculate. If you have been provided with a Custom Overprint by AVA, this method will be using the 16 band algorithm.
RGB and None should only be selected to temporarily switch off colour matching, or if you do not use the AVA Colour module.
Note: If a Custom Overprint is used as a Custom Setting for specific documents, this setting will be retained by the document when the file is saved.
Setting a Specific Document Overprint
- Click the ‘View Setting’ menu (set by default to ‘Application’), and change it to ‘Document’ and tick ‘Custom Setting’.
- Select the overprint method to be used.
- Save the file as .ava4 format.
Note: If you open a file which has been saved with a Custom Setting, and with a specific Overprint Method set, and that Overprint Method does not exist on your system, the following message will appear.
- Click Install. This will place a copy of the Overprint Method into the following folder on your system: Home user > Library > Application Support > AVA > Profiles > Overprinting
Reload
The Reload button located next to the Overprint Method pop up menu re-links AVA to the Overprinting folder (Home user > Library > Application Support > AVA > Profiles > Overprinting), making new Overprint methods recently saved to that folder, accessible in the software without the need to quit and relaunch the software. So the next time you receive a Custom Overprint from us, you do not need to quit and relaunch AVA to use it. Simply save the file into the above folder, then press the Reload button in the Overprint Inspector, and it will appear in the Overprint Method pop up menu.
Ink Breakdown
Selects the tonal matching method used by the software. Standard method must always be selected unless you use AVA Production Colour Management.
DeleteN and C settings
- n - controls the colour breakdown of single colours. If N is near 1, then the tonal breakdown will be nearly a straight line in the XYZ colour space. As the N value increases, the breakdown becomes more curved. See examples below of how a vignette looks with different n values.
The default for the n value is 8.5, this is what we would recommend you use although value can be adjusted to help AVA better simulate your production. If you are using a Tone DB the n value is ignored.
- c - controls the saturation of overprinting colours. Low C values mean overprinting colours will be less saturated this could resemble pigment inks. Higher C value mean overprinting colours will be more saturated this could resemble dye inks.
The default is 0.5, this is what we would recommend you use although value can be adjusted to help AVA better simulate your production. Do not set this value higher than 2 as this will produce unusual results. Note, the c value is ignored if you are using a custom overprint.
Delete