Pantone Black C: tints?

[monq]

Hello,

I have just found out that there is not a decent dark grey in the Pantone Solid coated range that does not contain masses of white or colours that I do not licke much (like reflex blue etc) because these affect lightfastness, and I am trying to achieve a safe output.

I am wondering whether the best option would be to simply use a tint of black c, like black c 85%?

Could you guys please let me know how would this be applied during the print process? Is it correct to asume that the only thing that will happen will be that the mix will add 15% of white? Or the process is not like this?

Thanks in advance!

[pacart]

it wouldn't be solid, you would have a screen visible. What do you mean by "safe output" is this for something that will be outside a lot and you are afraid of it fading?

[monq]

Hi pacart, thanks for your feedback. It means pharmaceutical packaging; I can control what happens when products are in warehouses (aka darkness) or even predict where the boxes will be in pharmacies etc (i.e. they might be exposed to artificial light 24/7).

But we cannot control what would happen if this is sitting in someone's bed side table by five months, in a mediterranean country with lots of sunlight really hitting the box. It's a long shot - but when it comes to pharma, any precaution is little.

That's why I am trying to achieve at least lightfastness 5. Some of the colours that are closer to what I like (i.e. PMS 425C) contain either too much white (which I have been told would reduce the lightfastness by 1-2 points), or colours with low lightfastness (i.e reflex blue, which is clearly below 5).

Essentially - I am after a dark grey that can withstand a bad storage situation - even when this might never happen...

[pacart]

have you looked into a UV coating?

[monq]

The issue is that I do not deal with one supplier / printer house, but with dozens, some of them brilliant, some of them... well... not so brilliant!

So yeah - an option to improve resistance would be UV coating - but chasing all suppliers to do this, plus making sure that each one of our projects is dealt in a safe manner, seems a no go area. I want to make sure that the final chosen grey is safe enough in itself.

One of the alternatives that I find interesting are 418C, which has 12.50 of green and 37.50 of black (so essentially - maximum lightfastness). However, this also has 50% of white - and I am not so sure as to how this would impact the final ink (I am assuming that this would be around lightfastness 6 - but it's only an assumption, given that green and black are usually LF 8)...

[pacart]

ok, fade resistant or uv inks then?

[Correct Color]

Unless you're making opaque ink, the mixing element in Pantone inks you're speaking of isn't really white, it's just transparent base. And if you're making a grey, you really don't have much choice but to use it, as if you don't cut your black with something...it's going to be black.

Your only other option is--as you surmise--to use a screened percentage of black. If you do, then no, the printer won't make a special ink mix to achieve your black value, they'll print black and screen it back to whatever percentage you specify.


Mike Adams
Correct Color

[Cold]

That's why I am trying to achieve at least lightfastness 5. Some of the colours that are closer to what I like (i.e. PMS 425C) contain either too much white (which I have been told would reduce the lightfastness by 1-2 points), or colours with low lightfastness (i.e reflex blue, which is clearly below 5).

Essentially - I am after a dark grey that can withstand a bad storage situation - even when this might never happen...

Can you not specify your printer to use a Fade Resistant Pantone(R) 425 Gray?

The cost difference should be minimal.

[monq]

Hi all and again - thanks for your feedback. It never crossed my mind the fade resistant pantone gray - I will check with the suppliers to find out what they suggest. As you can imagine, some of them will simply say "yeah no problem" - while other suppliers I deal with will try to get the heftiest possible sum...

Again - thanks, this clarifies that I should not use tints of anything but a real pantone to avoid screen.

Cheers!