Our printing units are equipped with up to 8 inkers. This does not mean we can always print 8 colours; due to technical printing restrictions it is possible that one colour has to be printed with 2 separate plates.
For full coverage areas (i.e. background) to print, an extra (relief) plate must be used.
White ink may need to be printed with 2 plates to achieve sufficient colour strength.
Halftones, fine texts and images in combination with a solid colour for the background need to be split into 2 plates because of different machine settings and film thickness of ink.
Process colours (CMYK)
Files should not be supplied as CMYK and require conversion to Individual Spot Colours
Spot colours
The spot colours have a tonal value of 100%, e.g. Pantone 435 C
It is not possible to create a different colour by printing two or more colours on top of each other.
Only Spot Colours can be used for Printing
Our printing machines are equipped with 8 ink units, however we recommend to set up layout files with a maximum of 6 different colours.
Layout with 6 different colours.
*Pantone live references should be selected from the Pantone Live directory.
Repro with 8 printing separations.
*Pantone live references should be selected from the Pantone Live directory.
Layouts with less than eight colours bring some benefits.
- Layouts with less than eight colours will lead to better conditions during printing.
- With this split of elements we can achieve a good halftone performance and a good ink transfer on high surface elements at the same time.
- Large areas of single colour will need to have a Relief Plate created and will take up an extra Inker Station.
- It is recommended that Screenwork is split onto a separate Plate from solid areas to allow better ink control.
Definition of spot colour WHITE on screen: (Cyan: 0, Magenta: 0, Yellow: 0, Black: 0) printing colour
Definition of SUBSTRATE on screen: (Cyan: 0, Magenta: 0, Yellow: 0, Black: 20) no printing colour
Definition of TECHNICAL INKS on screen: (Cyan: 0, Magenta: 0, Yellow: 0, Black: 100) no printing colour
Definition of spot colour WHITE on screen: (Cyan: 0, Magenta: 0, Yellow: 0, Black: 0) printing colour
Definition of SUBSTRATE on screen: (Cyan: 0, Magenta: 0, Yellow: 0, Black: 20) no printing colour
Definition of TECHNICAL INKS on screen: (Cyan: 0, Magenta: 0, Yellow: 0, Black: 100) no printing colour
Please make sure there is a clear definition about white or substrate elements.
Printed white is a printing colour and needs an extra separation.
Please also create an extra separation for the substrate colour.