Spot Metallics
What advantages does Color-Logic have over spot metallics?
13/11/15 13:58
The Process Metallic Color System™ has many advantages over using spot metallics. As an example, if you were to produce a poster for the Olympics that had an image of the three winners and you wanted to print each of the medals that was around their necks as metallic (Gold, Silver, Bronze), using conventional spot metallic colors, you would need to print CMYK for the people, and a gold, silver and bronze color for each metallic medal... Using the Color-Logic system it is possible to produce all these metallic colors just using one metallic silver ink and overprinting with CMYK colors chosen from the Color-Logic metallic color palette!
Results:
• Traditional Spot metallic = 7 printing plates (CMYK, silver, bronze, gold)
• Color-Logic printing = 5 printing plates (CMYK + silver)
Other benefits of Color-Logic system include faster drying times, reduced scuffing and lower ink film weights meaning less ink used on press, reducing your overall carbon footprint!
NOTE: The Color-Logic system works by printing CMYK inks over a metallic base ink - if you accurately control the color density, it is very easy to reproduce a job time and time again - this is because the printer measures the CMYK patches on press and prints to their printing conditions (density, tonal value/dot gain etc) in addition to controlling the densities of the Color-Logic silver inks. Reprints of the job would always match provided the printer has good process control in place and can print consistently to their same target printing conditions with the same ink and paper. With spot metallic inks, the printer needs to mix the ink to a recipe, taking multiple colors and mixing them with a metallic ink. This is not a guaranteed process and results differ depending on how the inks are mixed. If these spot colors are mixed and left for a while before printing, the pigment can also settle in the ink and this causes the shade of that ink to change. Printers will be familiar with how difficult it is to match spot metallics colors to an existing printed job.
Results:
• Traditional Spot metallic = 7 printing plates (CMYK, silver, bronze, gold)
• Color-Logic printing = 5 printing plates (CMYK + silver)
Other benefits of Color-Logic system include faster drying times, reduced scuffing and lower ink film weights meaning less ink used on press, reducing your overall carbon footprint!
NOTE: The Color-Logic system works by printing CMYK inks over a metallic base ink - if you accurately control the color density, it is very easy to reproduce a job time and time again - this is because the printer measures the CMYK patches on press and prints to their printing conditions (density, tonal value/dot gain etc) in addition to controlling the densities of the Color-Logic silver inks. Reprints of the job would always match provided the printer has good process control in place and can print consistently to their same target printing conditions with the same ink and paper. With spot metallic inks, the printer needs to mix the ink to a recipe, taking multiple colors and mixing them with a metallic ink. This is not a guaranteed process and results differ depending on how the inks are mixed. If these spot colors are mixed and left for a while before printing, the pigment can also settle in the ink and this causes the shade of that ink to change. Printers will be familiar with how difficult it is to match spot metallics colors to an existing printed job.