The dot gain or printing characteristic displays when you click the "Dot gain" tab.
Edit the printing characteristic/dot gain curve
The dot gain curves of the printing process (process colors, mixed colors and/or spot colors) are shown in the diagram. You can also switch over and view the printing characteristic curve here.
Dot gain is the enlargement of screen dots by the printing process. An image can thus appear darker and/or a color shift may occur.
Normally, dot gain is measured in the midtones at 40% and in the shadows at 80%.
Printing characteristic is used to illustrate in screen percent the relation of the dot areas in print to those on the film or in the data set. The ideal printing characteristic is linear and rises at an angle of 45°.
The printing characteristic depends on the ink used, the properties of the paper, the print form and the way the press works.
The printing characteristics that are determined only apply to the process conditions at hand. If the same data are to be produced on a different press or on different printing stock, the printing characteristics will also change.
To the right of the diagram, you can define various settings for editing the dot gain or printing characteristic.
Characteristic curve
Select the type of diagram you want by clicking the appropriate option.
The values for dot gain and printing characteristic are calculated from density values. The curve can deviate from the dot gain values that were determined with a densitometer.
Color
The number of colors depends on the profile selected. Prinect Color Toolbox supports the editing of multiple color profiles (Multicolor). It is possible to view and correct the dot gain curves or printing characteristic for a maximum of eight colors. The color names are taken from the profile.
You can change the dot gain or printing characteristic curves for the color channels by dragging the curves to the value desired or entering different coordinates.
Select the curve whose dot gain or printing characteristic is to be changed by clicking the appropriate radio button. Coordinates are shown as handles.
One handle always appears at the start. You can change the curve to make it more harmonic as a whole by clicking and dragging this handle. Double-click the left mouse button to add other handles at the cursor position (maximum 16). When you add a new handle, the previous one becomes fixed, in this way defining the shape of the curve.
If you set several handles, you can then change the shape of the curve locally around the handle that is currently selected. You can remove a handle by a single click with the right mouse button.
Values
When you click a handle, the numbers (Index, 0, 1, 2,...) of the reference point and its X and Y coordinates are shown.
You can also change the curve by overwriting these X and Y coordinates with new values.
Click "Reset" to reset the curves to the values you had when opening the screen.
Click "Apply" to write the dot gain change to the color conversion table of the ICC output profile.
Click "Save profile" (in the button bar) or select "File > Save profile" to open the "Save profile" dialog where you can save your modifications to the profiles (if necessary, use a different profile name and/or target folder).