Color changes with Thermography

[jlind]

I have a thermography project that is a repeat printing. I know that last time, the customer's PMS 5395 dark blue looked a little green after the thermography process, and the customer was not pleased. The press operator said, oh yeah, the color always changes a little after thermography. I want to get it right this time, so I'll experiment with some blues and see what happens. Unless there is a swatch book of thermographed PMS colors. Has anyone ever heard of a swatch book like this or is it time to make our own look up table?

John Lind
Cranberry Township, Pa
724-776-4718

 

[Bob Peterson]

John,

It is not uncommon for any blue to shift to the green side whether its had thermography, varnished, uv coating, or film lamination applied. There is no swatch book I'm aware of that will show a color that has had thermography process applied. A draw down of the color with either a UV or Aqueous coating applied should provide you you with a CLOSE simulation of how the color will look after the thermography process.

Regards,
Bob

 

[jlind]

That's very interesting Bob, thanks. I'll do some tests with aqueous.
John Lind
Cranberry Township, PA
724-776-4718

 

[Buck Crowley]

PMS 5395 contains mostly Cyan. Cyan is Blue-Green.
When you put a yellow filter over Cyan, you change it towards Green.
Some Thermography powder is yellow and shifts Cyan towards Green.
Some powder is clear. You need to use a clear powder to maintain the correct color.

OR use a color which when filtered with the thermography powder comes out to be PMS 5395.
A densitometer or spectrophotometer can make the measurements for you.
OR
You can also use Photoshop as a visual chart. "Mix" and match the colors and then visually match to a PMS using the color-picker.

NOTES
Careful, incandescent bulbs and sodium lamps contain a lot of yellow and will shift Cyan towards green.

PHOTOSHOP PMS 5395:
PANTONE(r) "Solid Matte"
CMYK(%):95 75 50 51

Web reference:
CMYK(%): 100 44 0 76
Zexol.com - Table de couleurs: PMS CMYK HEX

 

[goldimpress]

Thermography color shift

Thermography color shift

To my knowledge there are only two, at most three manufacturers of thermography powder available in the United States. All will eventually produce a color shift to yellow. In addition to cyan, magenta also will be affected.

 

[jlind]

You guys are very helpful. I was press proofing this job today. Started off with the 5395 and whamo, went green again. Now, 5395 has some yellow in it, but surely it's mostly the thermo powder acting as a filter. My trusty press operator had a brainstorm and tried a 50/50 mixture of 5395 and Reflex. Voila, the green shade went away. We offered up a libation of isopropyl alcohol to Ben Franklin and hope the customer will like the proof....Details to follow.
John Lind
Cranberry Township, PA
724-776-4718

 

[Buck Crowley]

Suppliers of Thermography powder

Suppliers of Thermography powder

Suppliers of Thermography powder

www.faustusa.com
www.thermotype.com
www.sunraise.com


BTW: Your pressman made "a color which when filtered with the thermography powder comes out to be PMS 5395".
This color mixing can also be done quickly in prepress in Photoshop type programs.

A yellow filter turns blue black. The yellow in the powder blackens the blue in the cyan. By your pressman adding a bright blue, they brought the powder filtered color back to PMS 5359.

Having done the experiment on press, you can use Photoshop to figure out just how much yellow shift the powder added. This information lets you predict how other colors will shift after thermography.

Regards,
Buck Crowley