Need Advice for printing on Aspire Petallics

[pworden]

Thought I posted this already but it's not showing up anywhere - sorry if there are duplicate posts.
Tried printing a block of a process build on this stock, cover weight, but couldn't get close to our proof. We have not profiled this paper and haven't used it before this. Our proof was a matched proof to our house coated stock. We read the paper manufacturer's recommendations and kept water down, still results were very, very dark and we pulled the job from press after turning black unit completely off and running very low densities for CMY. Using Heidelberg SM74, Toyo High Tack ink, 175 lpi. Thanks for any printing tips for this stock that you could share.

 

[Phil Schumacher]

If you are printing on a colored sheet of Aspire Petallics, you might have to back off on the screen especially for the colors that match the sheet. Some printers put down opaque white first and print over that, usually in a dry trap.

 

[pworden]

Thanks, Phil. The stock we're using isn't really colored, it's "Bear Grass" which is sort of a cream color. The dry trap sounds like a possible solution if it changes the absorbency of the paper.

 

[Phil Schumacher]

You shouldn't need opaque white on Beargrass. You might try checking the screening and use under color removal to keep the total amount of ink under 260%. Sometimes people set up with some scrap paper and then tail in just a few sheets of Aspire Petallics. In that case the ink/water balance might not have time to readjust and the first few sheets might be very dark. This is especially true if an uncoated stock is used to set up. Normally I don't hear about anything printing too dark, so I don't have much to go on.

 

[pworden]

Thanks again. I have more information now and we'll be trying this again, probably today. The screen build we had on press did indeed print too dark but that is in opposition to a test we did last night where we fed some Aspire sheets at the end of a regular process job - that one looks like ink printed on top of metallic ink; no punch, light blacks, etc. I'll have to talk to the pressroom manager to see what he can tell me about the first, dark screen build results. I know that he had completely removed the black printer and still had a color much too dark. (I'm in prepress trying to assist.) I think a double-hit of trans white and dry trap process printing is the best suggestion, but am looking into substituting the process inks with more opaque inks such as C=Pantone Process Blue, M= 226 or Rubine, Y=Pantone Yellow and K=Pantone Black. I think it's a guess at best. As you know the dry trap option is a pretty expensive one and the stock is expensive for testing. Alternatively, digital printing might be the most cost-effective with the best results in this case.