Simulating paper colors with ink

[budgetms]

My apologies if this has been covered before, or if I’ve posted it to the wrong forum.

I have a number of clients placing orders for their one- and two-color letterheads and envelopes on paper colors that are currently unavailable to me - right now Classic Linen Natural White and Antique Gray, but I anticipate others. As a temporary workaround I’m thinking of having them printed by one of the cheap online four-color printers, simulating the paper color by printing it. Has anyone tried doing this, and if so, do you know of a source of CMYK formulas paper colors like these?

 

[keith1]

Check out Mohawk Papers Via Linen (if it's still available). Not sure how the colours will match against Classic, and the finish is slightly different (if you're picky) but given your (customers') options, beggars can't be choosy. Certainly a better option than dicking around trying to match with process colour and then having to match again on repeat orders—especially on gang runs, which is how "cheap online four colour printers" operate.

 

[Repro_Pro]

Also, matching very light shades of any colour is a serious challenge for CMYK offset, "white" shades are extra difficult if not impossible to match.
Compounded by paper textures makes this route hopeless in your situation if your customers are picky.

 

[Stickman42]

Neenah's got a web store and the letterhead items are available to order (not sure on in stock or not). A quick google search found some paper on amazon.

Both are most likely stop gaps and more costly.

My distributor (Lindenmeyr) has natural in stock. Gray in Neenah, Via, etc all are out of stock. It may be a color getting phased out?

 

[Sullyjj]

We get requests to match discontinued papers with a solid offest ink frequently.

 

[tngcas]

Neenah's got a web store and the letterhead items are available to order (not sure on in stock or not). A quick google search found some paper on amazon.

Both are most likely stop gaps and more costly.

My distributor (Lindenmeyr) has natural in stock. Gray in Neenah, Via, etc all are out of stock. It may be a color getting phased out?

My distributor forwarded me an email stating that Neenah has temporarily stopped production on colored lines of paper while they focus on getting the core lines back up to full strength so I suspect colored paper is going to get rare for a while.

 

[budgetms]

Thanks to everyone for the replies on this.

I am looking into some of the things suggested, but our experience has been the same as what tngcas described, and not just from Neenah - we just can't get colored papers. Right now we're just looking for less-than-perfect options to at least offer our clients.

 

[dying breed]

My apologies if this has been covered before, or if I’ve posted it to the wrong forum.

I have a number of clients placing orders for their one- and two-color letterheads and envelopes on paper colors that are currently unavailable to me - right now Classic Linen Natural White and Antique Gray, but I anticipate others. As a temporary workaround I’m thinking of having them printed by one of the cheap online four-color printers, simulating the paper color by printing it. Has anyone tried doing this, and if so, do you know of a source of CMYK formulas paper colors like these?

One issue your customer may have with this is that depending on how they are using them ( laser printer) if their fusor gets too hot it may cause ink set off from the printing of the color

 

[SheetSqueezer]

My apologies if this has been covered before, or if I’ve posted it to the wrong forum.

I have a number of clients placing orders for their one- and two-color letterheads and envelopes on paper colors that are currently unavailable to me - right now Classic Linen Natural White and Antique Gray, but I anticipate others. As a temporary workaround I’m thinking of having them printed by one of the cheap online four-color printers, simulating the paper color by printing it. Has anyone tried doing this, and if so, do you know of a source of CMYK formulas paper colors like these?

If you decide to go this route, talk to a printer that uses FM screening. The super fine random dots produce better results with (among other things) lighter shades.