amatuer spot colour question

[4eyes]

is printing spot colour tints of the same pantone colour workable? that is, laying down a percentage (be it 100%, 10% or anything inbetween) of a specified spot colour, and adding tints of various strengths of the same spot colour over top of the base percentage. if so, is there an advisable tint percentages to work with?

and, is it foolish to use transparency ie multiply, opacity percentages etc with spot colours - be they the same pantone or multiple pantones?

thanks in advance.

 

[gordo]

is printing spot colour tints of the same pantone colour workable?

Yes.

that is, laying down a percentage (be it 100%, 10% or anything inbetween) of a specified spot colour, and adding tints of various strengths of the same spot colour over top of the base percentage. if so, is there an advisable tint percentages to work with?

Depends on what you're trying to achieve.


gordo

 

[Stephen Marsh]

For the spots and their interaction with each other, are you working in Illustrator, InDesign, Photoshop, a combination of all of the previous or some other software?

By default, Illustrator and InDesign spots knock out, they would need to be overprinted if you wish them to darken where they overlap. In Photoshop, spot colour channels always overprint, one has to create manual knockouts if desired.

A sample file always helps as it often comes down to case by case specifics, rather than broad general points.


Stephen Marsh

 

[4eyes]

This is just a general Q for indesign, illustrator and photoshop i guess -- so i have all bases covered. i work mainly with indesign and illustrator so its much more specific to these two progs.

attached is an example -- 100% solid spot background with varying tints of same colour on the top. i don't want to darken where they overlap, but to just stay at the specified tint %.

the overprint - i thought as this acted just as the multiply blend effect, you can't do such a thing to the same spot colour layered on top?

any advice will be greatly appreciated.

cheers.

 

[Schnitzel]

Overprint is not the same as the multiply blend effect. Beware of applying transparency effects to spot colors - some RIPs will not handle this, and may reject your file or produce strange results. The software's problem is with flattening the transparency and determining the exact color composition of the resulting elements. Overprinting is a much simpler operation from the RIP's side and does not involve color calculations.

 

[DCurry]

The thing to remember is that no matter what you do as far as blend modes, you can't have more than 100% of any one ink. Make sure you turn on Separations Preview or Overprint Preview in whatever program you are using and it will show you what you'll really get.

 

[Stephen Marsh]

The example posted is very simple, none of the overlapping tints create a new tone or colour where they overlap/interact.

With spots, normal blend mode and different tint values all at 100% opacity is generally safest unless one knows how an output device may behave. When mixing two or more different spots and one wishes the result to be darker, then overprint is the safest method (however the print result may be quite different than the preview).

In Illustrator, one can use the “Live Paint” or the “Effect/Pathfinder/Soft Mix” menu command and then the “Object/Expand Appearance” command to manually colour and simulate overlapping colour effects safely with tints of spot colours.

You will have to factor in dot gain for the various tints, the 50% tint of the spot will not print this light and will be darker, same for the other colours. As the background is solid and if there is a large area of this solid spot, the tints may print a bit darker than if the same tints were on a white background. Something else to take into account is the effect of “simultaneous contrast”:

http://web.mit.edu/persci/gaz/gaz-teaching/flash/contrast-movie.swf


Regards,

Stephen Marsh

 

[4eyes]

thanks very much for the answers chap.

 

[rich apollo]

The biggest challenge in either case is that you, likely, won't be able to generate an accurate proof.

 

[AlexRossi76]

111111111111111111

 

[Stephen Marsh]

I have a question to add to this thread if possible as it's about a spot colour at different percentages.

How come some printers don't allow you to print percentages of spot colours? I had to set up a packaging file once and had a spot blue colour at 100% and wanted to have the same spot colour in the artwork at 60%, but they said they couldn't print percentages of the same spot colour and they would have to treat the tint as a separate colour / separation. Does this depend on the type of print? I believe the print process was post print flexo if that helps

Printing on corrugated/fluted board, for a shipping carton? My guess is that due to the type of flexo plate’s that they were using and the densities required, they would have printed solids/linework and tints on separate plates so that the tones were not hammered when they attempted to achieve the required solid ink density for the solids.


Stephen Marsh

 

[AlexRossi76]

111111111111111111

 

[PreFlexoPress]

Hi Stephen, yes it was getting printed on corrugated board. It was a box that could have up to 4 spot colours, which I did utilise, however say for example I was using PMS 232, I couldn't use that spot colour as a percentage in that artwork, even though I could use up to 4 different spot colours. Does that make sense?

With the Flexo plate and anilox technology available to flexo printers today this shouldn't be an issue. 10+ years ago yes, but not in today's world. I would research a new print supplier.

 

[alang66]

I would say that the post print flexo would have had an influence on this request but it is more likely that it was the coverage difference of the 100% spot to the tint. If you have a large area of solid colour with a tint in the middle of it, most print processes would find it difficult to get the solid colour dense enough without ruining the strength of the tint. For a better result for both the solid area and the tint, it would always be advisable to print these separate if cost is not an issue. Most post print flexo printers require split line and tone on single colour jobs.

I have a question to add to this thread if possible as it's about a spot colour at different percentages.

How come some printers don't allow you to print percentages of spot colours? I had to set up a packaging file once and had a spot blue colour at 100% and wanted to have the same spot colour in the artwork at 60%, but they said they couldn't print percentages of the same spot colour and they would have to treat the tint as a separate colour / separation. Does this depend on the type of print? I believe the print process was post print flexo if that helps