Windows 11 · macOS · Alps MD series

Print what you see.

SpotMatrix is a modern print management application compatible with Alps MD series printers — bringing WYSIWYG colour preview, ICC profile support, and direct USB communication.

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50+
Layers supported
20+
Spot colours
600dpi
Maximum resolution
0
Legacy drivers needed
Features

Everything the OEM
driver never did.

SpotMatrix manages the full print workflow — from colour separation to ribbon prompting — so you can focus on the work rather than the process.

Subtractive WYSIWYG preview
Ink layers composited subtractively over a user-specified background colour. Soft-proof the entire job before committing a single ribbon pass.
ICC colour profiles
Full ICC profile support including Fogra39L_coated for blackest blacks. Automatic White + CMYK separation from full-colour images.
All ribbon types
CMYK, opaque white, gloss, metallic foil, and all 20 Elephant's Rocket spot colour ribbons. Live ribbon inventory direct from printer hardware.
Direct USB communication
No legacy print drivers. SpotMatrix communicates directly with MD series printers via USB — natively on MD-5500 or via USB-to-parallel adaptor.
Spot colour workflow
Extract colour regions from full-colour images and assign them to spot layers — removing that colour cleanly from the CMY channels.
Virtual printer driver
Print from Illustrator, CorelDRAW, or Inkscape directly into SpotMatrix. Full-colour or spot colour — handled automatically.
Metallic sheen preview
Metallic ribbon layers display with a mouse-tracked highlight sheen so you can visualise foil and metallic colours before printing.
Cut path export
Automatically generates vector outlines with user-controlled border for export to Cricut, Silhouette, or Brother Scan'N'Cut cutting machines.
Workflow videos

See it in action.

Short clips demonstrating real print workflows — from full-colour separation to complex multi-layer spot colour jobs.

01
Full colour separation
02
Spot colour workflow
03
Layout adjustment
04
Dimensions and Rulers
05
Full Print Job
06
Scanned Images
 >
07
Illustrator to SpotMatrix
 >
08
Halftone options
09
Auto assign ribbon by filename
FAQ

Common questions.

Yes. All current Elephant's Rocket spot colour inks are supported as well as Alps OEM white, gloss, metallic and foil colours.
What You See Is What You Get. The application displays ink layers in the order they will be printed over a user-specified background colour — defaulting to "decal blue" so that white underlay can be seen. Elephant's Rocket spot colour inks are handled too: "Pastel white" is designed to overprint a colour layer and make it more pastel; "Dark" darkens the colour printed under. The display mimics this behaviour, allowing you to soft-proof a multi-layer job before committing any ink to paper.
That's a complicated question. There are large areas of the RGB colour space that can't be represented in CMYK — these are called out-of-gamut colours. However, the spot and CMY colours have been replicated as closely as possible and layer compositing tuned so the way layers interact is consistent with applying ink to paper.
The application adds a highlight sheen that follows the mouse so metallic layers can be visualised in the preview.
Many. The Elephant's Rocket colour chart contains 69 layers and is manageable. For larger jobs, splitting into multiple files is recommended. The printer won't eject the paper unless the eject flag is set on the last pass, so you can print from multiple source images.
Yes. You can select regions of the image to be converted to spot colour layers. This removes that colour from the CMY channels, leaving only the pure, un-halftoned spot colour behind — so problematic colours like orange can be removed from the Magenta and Yellow channels and assigned directly to a spot layer.
Theoretically yes, but testing is needed. The application keeps its own ribbon inventory and has an Elephant's Switch mode that is only activatable with one "black" ink loaded. Since the application knows which colour is required for each pass it will prompt for the appropriate ribbon, reducing the possibility of errors.
The application supports a modern blue-noise dithering algorithm as well as the old-style chunky halftones the OEM driver used. Floyd-Steinberg and Atkinson dithering were tested but introduced artefacts with graphics and solid colours.
Yes — page boundaries in the layer stack are controlled by the Eject flag on a layer. Multiple copies can be printed, however loading decal paper and changing ink requires user intervention so unattended printing isn't practical.
No. The application can store the complete layer stack in a single file for re-use later.
Yes, but it requires a virtual print driver. The driver prints to a file in a spool directory. SpotMatrix monitors the spool directory and imports files as they arrive. Black and white files are assumed to be spot colour plates; full-colour files are automatically processed into White plus CMYK layers. This allows a print job to be built in layers and previewed before printing.
Spot colour layers can be stacked into the application one at a time using the File → Print workflow. Further automation for Illustrator and CorelDraw would require testing with those applications. For Inkscape, an export script is available that separates named spot colour layers and imports them automatically.
SpotMatrix prompts you to insert the required cartridge for each spot colour layer. If it detects two inks that appear to be black, it will prompt you to remove one and ensure only the required colour is loaded.
Yes — you can remap cartridge barcodes for spot ribbon colours in the application. Elephant's Rocket spot colours are designed to use the settings for black ink (barcode 0), so please test that the ribbon barcode you choose prints as expected.
Probably, if you have a supported USB-to-parallel adaptor. The application has been tested on an MD-1000 and an MD-5500 using various USB-to-parallel adaptors as well as the built-in USB port on the MD-5500. Other models would need testing. The rewind/overlay behaviour is part of the printer's command language so should work even if the OEM driver didn't expose the overlay setting.
Probably. The application uses the lowest-level USB communication possible but is still reliant on the adaptor identifying itself to Windows as a printer device. Most USB-to-parallel adaptors do this by default, so a separate driver is rarely needed.
On Windows 11? That configuration hasn't been tested. A USB-to-parallel adaptor or the MD-5500's native USB port is the recommended connection method.
Not without additional development work and hardware — for example an Arduino or similar device providing an interface between the host computer and the printer's SCSI bus.
Yes — dependent on Python, UI libraries, and USB support remaining compatible. The direct USB approach is as low-level as practically possible, which makes it more resilient to OS changes than driver-based approaches.
Requires MacOS 13 Ventura and above with Apple Silicon CPU. On macOS and Linux the application talks to the USB hardware directly, which is actually simpler than Windows. A USB-to-parallel adaptor that works on Windows should work on a Mac — you may need a USB-C to USB-A adaptor. Tested on an 8GB M2 MacBook Air with good results. 16GB is recommended if running Illustrator simultaneously, but 8GB is viable.
Managing print jobs with the OEM driver on XP is error-prone — forgetting to click the overlay button or selecting the wrong spot colour means starting the pass again and wasting ribbon and paper. SpotMatrix manages rewind and overlay behaviour automatically and prompts for the correct cartridge. You can preview the entire job in colour before committing to print.
Probably — but the goal was to see exactly what would print before sending any data to the printer. Modern Windows is also pushing vendors toward IPP (Internet Printing Protocol), so traditional printer drivers are being phased out. A Raspberry Pi 5 could accept print jobs and perform the needed rasterisation, appearing as an IPP network printer to any device on the network — but you would still want SpotMatrix to manage spot colours and soft-proof jobs.
The application has an outline mode that automatically generates vector outlines of graphic elements with a configurable border. These can be exported as SVG files for use with Cricut, Silhouette, or Brother Scan'N'Cut cutting machines — or used to cut masks for screen printing over decals on uncoated stock.
Compatibility

Platform support.

Windows
Windows 11 ✓
Native. Full production support.
Windows
Windows 10
Seems to work - but continued compatibility is uncertain.
macOS
MacOS 13 Ventura and above
Requires macOS Ventura or later and M-series Applie Silicon CPU.
Linux
Tested
Identical code to macos version.
Alps MD-1000
Tested ✓
Via USB-to-parallel adaptor. Full ribbon inventory and status monitoring.
Alps MD-5500
Tested ✓
Native USB and via adaptor. Full ribbon inventory and status monitoring.
Alps MD-5000
Tested ✓
Via USB-to-parallel adaptot. Full ribbon inventory and status monitoring.
Other MD models
Untested
Should work — RGL command language is consistent across the MD series.