How to Print Color Separations in CorelDRAW

Printing color separations directly from CorelDRAW allows screen printers and commercial prepress technicians to output individual color plates or film positives without relying on external RIP software. By properly setting up your artwork colors, configuring the print engine to generate separations, and applying registration marks, you can send individual cyan, magenta, yellow, black, or spot color plates straight to a PostScript-compatible printer or film output device.

Step 1: Prepare Your Artwork Colors

Before opening the print menu, you must define your color model correctly within the design workspace:

  • For Process Printing (CMYK): Ensure all objects, outlines, and raster images are converted to the CMYK color space.
  • For Screen Printing (Spot Colors): Convert all elements to Spot Colors (such as Pantone palettes). CorelDRAW creates a separate plate for each distinct spot color name. If two objects use slightly different spot names, they will print on separate films.
  • Overprints: If you need specific colors to print over the background rather than knock it out, right-click the object and select Overprint Fill or Overprint Outline.

Step 2: Open the Print Menu and Select the Printer

  1. Click File in the top menu and select Print (or press Ctrl + P).
  2. In the General tab, select your destination printer from the dropdown menu.
  3. The selected device must be a PostScript-compatible printer or a software-based PostScript driver (such as Corel Paint & Print or Device Independent PostScript File) to unlock manual separation controls.

Step 3: Enable Color Separations

  1. Click on the Color tab in the Print dialog box.
  2. Under the Color conversions section, set the Output colors as option to Separations.
  3. If this option is grayed out, return to the General tab and ensure your selected printer supports PostScript output.

Step 4: Configure the Separation Plates

  1. Click on the Separations tab, which becomes active once separations are enabled.
  2. Review the list of plates under the Color column:
    • To prevent a specific plate from printing, uncheck the box next to its name.
    • To combine spot colors into process colors, click Convert spot colors to CMYK (leave this unchecked if burning screens for specific ink colors).
  3. Adjust the Frequency (LPI) and Screen Angle for each plate if your printer driver does not handle halftone screening automatically.

Step 5: Add Prepress and Registration Marks

  1. Click on the Prepress tab.
  2. Check the box for Registration marks to add alignment targets to each printed sheet, which is essential for lining up screens or plates on press.
  3. Check Print color names so each film or plate clearly identifies which ink it represents.

Step 6: Preview and Print

  1. Click the Print Preview button at the bottom of the dialog box to verify the output.
  2. Use the page navigation controls in the preview window to flip through each plate to confirm that elements are knocking out or overprinting as intended.
  3. Once verified, click Print to send the separation plates to your device.