Color Print Samples

Check the colours before you print the job full size. Color Print Samples makes a sheet of colour patches from the job, each labelled with its name and formula, so a small test print tells you what you need to know.

See it in the shop · Version 1.1.7 · Needs PowerScripts 3.8.32 or later

Open the PowerScripts panel (Window > Extensions > PowerScripts) and choose Color Print Samples from the Color Charts scripts.

1. Select the artwork.
2. Press Create Sample Swatches.

A row of patches appears under the artboard, one for each colour, with the document's name, on a new artboard of its own. Print that artboard as your test.

A scaled-down test print often makes the coloured areas too small to judge. A proper patch for each colour is easy to hold against a sample, a Pantone book or the customer's previous job.

• Source: where the colours come from:
  • Selection: the colours in the selected artwork.
  • All Swatches: every swatch in the document.
  • Selected Swatches: the swatches selected in the Swatches panel.
• Font: the font of the labels.
• Double Sided Layout: a second, matching row of patches with a dashed fold line between them. Use it for sublimation onto fabric, or anything printed to be folded or seen from both sides.
• Include process colors: add patches for CMYK and RGB colours too, not just spot colours.
• Include full color breakdown: under each spot colour's name and formula, add its process equivalent (for example its CMYK values), so you can see how the printer will make it.
• Create Artboard for swatches: make an artboard round the patches, ready to print on their own.
• Create Sample Swatches: does it.

1. Set Source to All Swatches and untick Include process colors.
2. Press Create Sample Swatches.
3. Print only the new artboard, then compare each patch with your colour book.
4. Adjust any colour that's off (for example with Color Shotgun or Re-Spot) before printing the job.

• Keep the printed samples with the job: the file name on the sheet tells you which job they belong to.
• Print the samples with the same settings, media and profile as the real job, or the test won't tell you much.

• White (and CMYK 0,0,0,0 or RGB 255,255,255) gets no patch.
• Patches are 35 x 20 mm, with labels underneath. Everything is grouped as “Color Print Swatches”, so it's easy to move or delete.
• The patches go in one row under the active artboard, so lots of colours make a long row.

• 1.1.7
  • Fixed: the samples use the Font you pick (they were always in Arial).
  • Fixed: the Help button opens this script's help page.
• 1.1.6: Buy in PowerScripts now opens this script's page in the shop.
• 1.1.5: Updated for PowerScripts 3.8.32.
• Older changes: PowerScripts Release Notes