Get spot color effects with primary colors

Spot color: There can be no spot color in life, but using spot colors is very troublesome. Spot color is a problem often encountered in printing. If you want to represent a large area of ​​flat screens, small refills and screened texts, and corporate and trademark colors, you usually use spot colors. Spot colors are a very important tool for colors in commercial and package printing where color gamut is outside CMYK.

However, the use of spot inks can also cause problems. If you must customize the ink, the ink must be mixed and stored as required. After printing a spot color, it is necessary to clean the press once. If the number of spot colors increases, the work will be carefully planned, which will reduce the overall printing efficiency. It is also a challenge to spot color proofing. Many spot colors cannot be accurately proofed, and the proofing process is very complicated. Proofing spot colors often increase printer and customer costs.

Spot color, no spot color ink required

Is it possible to express spot colors without using spot ink?

Creo's technology can be realized. Spotless print technology is a revolutionary solution that eliminates the need for spot color inks to perform spot color effects. Creo's SQUAREspot® square spot thermal imaging technology and Staccato® Vision Plus are the basis for spotless printing. With no spot color printing technology, screens can be constructed to subtly replace spot colors (such as spot colors in Pantone PANTONE® Color Guide). The target color can also be separated by standard color detection equipment. For example, spot color printing companies can sample from textile or paint samples to create a primary color formula to best represent spot colors.

Creo Spotless 4 (Spotless 4)

Until now, spot color simulation is a challenge, especially in the CMYK printing where color gamut is limited. In addition, the universal screen background formula does not reflect the actual printing situation of a single printing shop. Creo's Spotless 4TM solution creates and preserves spot color recipes based on the printer's unique CMYK printing environment, which assures that a printer can perform a specified spot color effect with a common four-color press. With Spotless 4 and Vision Plus screening, printers can display smooth, soft tones, jump backgrounds, and avoid the noise, distortion, and moire that traditional screen-based color construction can create, resulting in unprecedented color stability. . Small texts and lines, even lines in reverse white, colors, and shadows, can be accurately reproduced and the edges can be jagged.

Creo SpotlessX

Creo's Spotless XTM solution delivers spot color alternatives. This scheme utilizes extra primary colors such as red, orange, green, and blue to expand into colors outside the CMYK color gamut and can express a great many colors. Printers can aggregate jobs for processing, save preparation time, increase production efficiency, and make planning more flexible for the entire production.

The non-spot color technology is very special and can use six color groups based on CMYK; the fifth and sixth primary colors are extended colors. Even the company's logo color can be used as an extended primary color, making it possible to print corporate logos without the need for spot colors. The printer can define multiple extended spot colors.

In general, the non-spot color X enables six-color printing presses to achieve higher productivity and efficiency, increase company profits, and expand business.

Proofing Spotless

Normally, spot color proofing is a very challenging job because the proofing is an analog process. There is no relationship between the spot color ink on the printing press and the color on the proofing equipment. Therefore, the proofing is usually expressed by a color instead. This makes proofing spot color inks inaccurate performance, inefficiency, and the chance of accidental occurrence on the printing press is also very large, may bring great losses to the printer, but also damage the customer's confidence in the printing plant.

No spot color printing technology uses primary color mixing instead of spot color inks. This subverts the traditional way of handling. The non-spot color engine maps these mixed primaries to multiple proofing devices, so the proofer can directly simulate the effect on the press, while also supporting the mesh reconciliation and inkjet proofing.

With Creo's colorless technology, accurate spot color proofing can be achieved, customer service levels are improved, and accidents on the press can be avoided. No-spot color printing also helps printers and designers better communicate and enhance customer loyalty. Through the ICC document desktop proofer, designers can generate their own proofing and adjust their designs in time.

Creo's Colorless Solution: Efficient, simple, and cost-effective performance of spot colors with primary colors.

Source: Jinfeng Color Printing