New on CTAN: spotxcolor
Date: March 12, 2026 7:39:59 PM CET
Munehiro Yamamoto submitted the
spotxcolor
package.
Version number: 0.14 2026-03-12
License type: mit
Summary description: Modern Spot Color support for the xcolor package
Announcement text:
This package provides robust and modern spot color (e.g., DIC, PANTONE) support for the `xcolor` package across all major TeX engines (pdfTeX, LuaTeX, XeTeX, and dvipdfmx). It resolves the structural PDF syntax issues found in the legacy `spotcolor` package and provides a more robust, expl3-based architecture compared to the `colorspace` package. Key features included in this initial release: - Native `xcolor` integration: `\textcolor` generates true spot color separation plates in pdfTeX and LuaTeX without breaking the color stack. - Safe fallback for dvipdfmx: `\textcolor` safely falls back to a CMYK representation, avoiding parse errors and black-box outputs. - Explicit spot color injection: Added the `\SpotColor` macro to force true spot color output in dvipdfmx and other engines. - Perfect PDF structure: Safely expands variables and manages PDF objects to prevent garbage collection issues and broken cross-references. - Backward compatibility: Seamlessly emulates legacy `spotcolor` macros (e.g., `\AddSpotColor`, `\NewSpotColorSpace`) to reuse existing color dictionaries without modification.
This package is located at https://mirrors.ctan.org/macros/latex/contrib/spotxcolor More information is at https://www.ctan.org/pkg/spotxcolor
Thanks for the upload. For the CTAN Team Erik Braun
CTAN is run entirely by volunteers and supported by TeX user groups. Please join a user group or donate to one, see https://ctan.org/lugs
This package provides robust and modern spot color (e.g., DIC, PANTONE) support for the `xcolor` package across all major TeX engines (pdfTeX, LuaTeX, XeTeX, and dvipdfmx). It resolves the structural PDF syntax issues found in the legacy `spotcolor` package and provides a more robust, expl3-based architecture compared to the `colorspace` package. Key features included in this initial release: - Native `xcolor` integration: `\textcolor` generates true spot color separation plates in pdfTeX and LuaTeX without breaking the color stack. - Safe fallback for dvipdfmx: `\textcolor` safely falls back to a CMYK representation, avoiding parse errors and black-box outputs. - Explicit spot color injection: Added the `\SpotColor` macro to force true spot color output in dvipdfmx and other engines. - Perfect PDF structure: Safely expands variables and manages PDF objects to prevent garbage collection issues and broken cross-references. - Backward compatibility: Seamlessly emulates legacy `spotcolor` macros (e.g., `\AddSpotColor`, `\NewSpotColorSpace`) to reuse existing color dictionaries without modification.
This package is located at https://mirrors.ctan.org/macros/latex/contrib/spotxcolor More information is at https://www.ctan.org/pkg/spotxcolor
Thanks for the upload. For the CTAN Team Erik Braun
CTAN is run entirely by volunteers and supported by TeX user groups. Please join a user group or donate to one, see https://ctan.org/lugs
spotxcolor – Modern Spot Color support for the xcolor package
This package provides robust spot color (e.g., DIC, PANTONE)
support for the xcolor package across all major TeX
engines. It resolves structural PDF issues found in the legacy
spotcolor package and provides an
explicit fallback mechanism for dvipdfmx (which is
not fully supported by the colorspace package).
Supported major drivers: pdftex,
luatex, dvipdfmx (including
ptex/uptex), xetex.
| Package | spotxcolor |
| Version | 0.14 2026-03-12 |
| Copyright | 2026 Munehiro Yamamoto |
| Maintainer | Munehiro Yamamoto |