Exceptions are used to specifically influence color conversions of special colors. If source and target colors in a color conversion are identical the colors will be linearized. If the color spaces differ, the colors will be optimized and adapted.
Exceptions ensure that special properties of colors remain unchanged. The choice of appropriate Exceptions thus allows a precise color conversion of specific colors. Exceptions preserve the properties of the input colors (for example using a single color channel for primary colors or two color channels for secondary colors) and calculate the best possible combination to minimize related color errors (our definition of “optimized”).
All color patches that are affected by the selected exception are highlighted in the graphical representation by a red border. If you move the mouse pointer over a color patch it is emphasized by a black or white border and the values of the source and target color space are displayed. Press the “Alt” key on your keyboard to capture the color patch allowing you to check quickly and easily whether it is affected by an exception.
Exceptions which are not available are grayed out. This may be the case when a dependency between exceptions exists, or when exceptions are not relevant for a specific color space.
Exceptions are often related to each other under certain circumstances such as Rendering or Black Generation settings. For example, if the Gray exception is enabled the 100% Black exception is enabled automatically, too. However, this is only the case if a perceptual rendering method has been selected. If a relative or absolute colorimetric rendering method has been selected these two exceptions are independent because in these cases we want to respect the colorimetric accuracy.

Custom Exception settings
Triplex (two primary colors plus black): Optimizes the color conversion of a secondary color (for example, blue: cyan plus magenta) plus black by preventing color contaminations. Triplex colors are recalculated during the conversion but remain triplex colors in the target profile. Therefore, if you have a dark shade of blue, like 100C 60M 50K, and you would like to convert it to the most suitable blue represented in the target color space consisting only of cyan, magenta and black, the exception Triplex must be activated.
The exception Triplex includes the exception Duplex and therefore also the exceptions Primaries, Secondaries, Gray and 100% Black.
Duplex (a primary color plus black): Optimizes the color conversion of a primary color (cyan, magenta or yellow) plus black by preventing color contaminations. Duplex colors are recalculated during the conversion but remain duplex colors in the target profile.
The exception Duplex includes the exceptions Primaries, Gray and 100% Black.
Gray: Protects the single-color structure of Black from 0 to 100%. This exception includes the exceptions 100% Black and White.
For RGB DeviceLink profiles Gray ensures that the gray axis is composed of equal RGB value proportions. For a conversion of an RGB source profile into a CMYK target color space, Gray ensures that the RGB gray axis is created by black only.
100% Black: Protects 100% black, so 100% K remains 100% K and will not be supplemented with or replaced by CMY.
For a conversion of an RGB source profile into a CMYK target color space 100% Black ensures that an RGB black of 0, 0, 0 is converted to 100% black. For example, this allows you to prevent a pure black RGB text from being composed of four colors in the CMYK profile after the conversion.
100% C,M,Y: Protects cyan, magenta and yellow. The 100% values of C, M and Y are retained after the color conversion at 100%.
100% R,G,B: Protects pure red, green and blue. The 100% values of red, green and blue are retained after the color conversion at 100%. Red will therefore still be formed with 100% magenta and 100% yellow.
Max. C,M,Y: Creates a maximum saturation of primaries. This function can be used independently of the protection of primaries and secondaries.
Example: If 100C would be converted to 80C + M + Y, activation of this exception ensures that cyan is now converted to the maximum value, which means, C is set to a value higher than 80, i.e. a value between 80C and 100C, depending on what is achievable in terms of maximum saturation while contaminating color proportions are adjusted color corrected.
Note: If the exception Primaries is selected as well, the exception Max. C,M,Y is grayed out while the exception 100% C,M,Y is activated instead, as in the case of a purity protection of primaries the maximum value is 100%.
Max. R,G,B: In CMYK color spaces ‘R, G, B’ corresponds to the color combinations MY, CY and CM. When activated, the higher color value is set to 100% while the second color value is optimized colorimetrically. This function can be used independently of the protection of primaries and secondaries.
Example: If a pure 100% red (100% M+Y) would be converted to 95% M and 90% Y in a conversion with pure secondary colors, activating the setting Max. R,G,B increases the color red to maximum saturation, like 100% M and 95% Y. However, if you require that 100% red remains 100% red in the conversion, use the setting 100% R,G,B.
Note, however, that this might not be the best colorimetric value. Max R,G,B, on the other hand, calculates the best color correct value with the highest level of saturation.
Primaries: Protects the single color structure of primary colors. Calculates the Lab value of a primary color of the source profile and searches for the best matching primary color value in the target profile. For example, 40C might be converted to 53C but the single color structure remains. If this exception is not enabled, primary colors of the source profile may be contaminated in the target profile. The checkboxes C, M and Y allow protection of individual primaries. Here, optimized transitions are calculated which gently extend into adjacent color areas in order to avoid hard edges.
The slider Tolerance allows to specify how far adjacent color areas are included.
Note: Enabling this exception does not preserve the 100% values which means that 100C might be converted to 98C. If you would like to conserve the 100% values in the target profile, enable the exception 100% C,M,Y.
In case of a conversion of an RGB source profile into a CMYK target color space, Primaries ensures that the primary colors C, M and Y are kept pure.
Adapt TVI to source profile: This exception is important when tone value increases of primary colors needs to be preserved precisely. An application example would be a predefined printing standard that needs to be printed on a different paper while the used target profile featured a different tone value increase. The exception Adapt TVI to source profile allows creation of a DeviceLink profile which corrects the tone value increases of the target profile to meet the requirements of the printing standard (from the source profile) precisely.
Secondaries: Protects the two-color structure of secondaries. Calculates the Lab value of a secondary color of the source profile and searches for the best matching secondary color value in the target profile. For example, 40C 100M might be converted to 41C 97M but the two-color structure remains. If this exception is not enabled, secondary colors of the source profile may be contaminated in the target profile. The checkboxes MY, CY and CM allow protection of individual secondaries. Here, optimized transitions are calculated which gently extend into adjacent color areas in order to avoid hard edges.
The slider Tolerance allows to specify how far adjacent color areas are included.
In case of a conversion of an RGB source profile into a CMYK target color space, Secondaries ensures that the secondary colors MY, CY and CM are kept pure.
Black overprint: Protects 100% black as additional layer above a CMY background: CMY values are minimized but colors are calculated correctly and changed as little as possible compared to the original.
White: Protects the paper white. This is especially useful when you would like to achieve an absolute colorimetric simulation for proofs without a simulation of the paper color (e.g. for aesthetic reasons). Is available only if Absolute Colorimetric is selected as Rendering intent and Proofing as a Setting.
400% Black: Protects 400% Black: Even when a lower Total Amount of Color (TAC) is selected in the tab Color Generation, a color value of CMYK = 100%, 100%, 100%, 100% is maintained.
Border Clipping: Percentage values close to zero will be set to 0% and key values close to 100% will be rounded up to 100%. This results in pure tones which no longer need to be screened in printing.
400% Black to Pure Black: 400% inks will be converted to 100% black, so CMYK = 100%, 100%, 100%, 100% will be converted to CMYK =0%, 0%, 0%, 100%.