Preview color separations

You can preview color separations and overprinting using the Separations Preview panel. To see a video on using the Separations Preview panel, see www.adobe.com/go/lrvid4021_ai.

Previewing separations on your monitor lets you preview spot color objects in your document, and check the following:

Rich black
Previewing separations lets you identify areas that will print as rich black, or process black (K) ink mixed with color inks for increased opacity and richer color.

Overprinting
You can preview how blending, transparency, and overprinting will appear in color-separated output. You can also see overprinting effects when you output to a composite printing device.

Note: The Separation Preview panel in Illustrator is slightly different from the Separation Preview panels in InDesign and Acrobat, for instance, the Preview panel in Illustrator is for CMYK document mode only.
  1. Choose Window > Separations Preview.
  2. Select Overprint Preview.
  3. Do any of the following:

    • To hide a separation ink on screen, click the eye icon  to the left of the separation name. Click again to view the separation.

    • To hide all separation inks on screen except one, Alt-click (Windows) or Option-click (Mac OS) the eye icon for that separation. Alt-click (Windows) or Option-click (Mac OS) the eye icon again to view all separations again.

    • To view all process plates at once, click the CMYK icon .

  4. To return to normal view, deselect Overprint Preview.

While previewing separations on your monitor can help you detect problems without the expense of printing separations, it does not let you preview trapping, emulsion options, printer’s marks, and halftone screens and resolution. Work with your commercial printer to verify these settings using integral or overlay proofs. Setting inks to be visible or hidden on screen in the Separations Preview panel does not affect the actual separations process—it only affects how they appear on your screen during the preview.

Note: Objects on hidden layers are not included in an on‑screen preview.