Searching beyond silver and gold

The objects in the plain box delivered to Dr. Indiana Jones shimmered with an indescribable color. "What is it, Indie" the woman asked, the light reflecting up to her face. "Simple", he said, "it's a mixed metallic ink, one of the great secrets of the ancient printing arts". A crooked smile crossed his face. "We've searched for years for a new graphic look, and it was right in front of us all along".

Metallic inks are formulated with a high concentration of tiny flakes which are, basically, colored gold or silver. They're like metallic paint for automobiles, only the flakes are so small they're invisible rendering a uniform color. When printed on a coated paper (glossy or dull coated, see the post http://tinyurl.com/be6aay) they sit in a thin film on the surface and live up to their metallic name. The basic colors can be found in any Pantone Solid Color book in the numbers 871-877.

So far, so good...nothing new. Everyone has seen gold or silver ink, they've been around for years, are almost a graphic cliche. What's the fuss?

Pantone also publishes a group of colors which are blends of either silver or gold metallic with regular Pantone mixing colors. The guide for these colors can be found at http://tinyurl.com/cm5j46. This is a unique range of metallic blues, greys, reds, etc which are, (until now, of course) an underutilized resource for designers...a well kept secret. Using one of these colors will give your multi color job a look which is truly remarkable.

Here's a quick primer on the technical considerations:

These are SPOT colors. If you don't know exactly what that means in terms of preparing your file, please be careful. They are not reproducible by CMYK. They need their own separate plate, and your layout file and ALL linked graphics need to have the spot color defined consistently as such. You will not (unless you know a lot about channels) be able to use Photoshop graphics to separate properly unless the file is a monotone. For most practical purposes any linked graphic which is more than a single color needs to be vector based (e.g. Illustrator .ai or .eps, Freehand, Corel Draw EPS) with the spot colors defined in the files genetic code.

You must refer to a printed guide when selecting the color, because, even more than regular colors, it's the ONLY way to know what the color tone will look like. These colors do NOT proof well on digital systems because of their unique physical properties. If you do not have the guide to refer to you are flying blind.

Metallic inks are opaque, unlike regular inks, which means they will not blend. If you print a conventional yellow ink over a conventional blue ink the result is green. If you try the same trick, or anything similar, with metallics you may get a mess. Some blending effects DO work, but the problem I referred to (lack of accurate proofing) makes it difficult to predict what will happen.

The good news about their opacity is that they can, within limits, be printed on dark colored stock and still show up! We print silver ink on dark blue color stock all the time with good results...impossible with conventional, transparent inks where the stock color would transmit through.

These inks are NOT foil stamping. I need to be clear that foil stamping, where a thin layer of metallic leaf is transferred to the paper by means of a heated die, is a different process. It's a good effect, too, but different.

The metallic effect does not work on uncoated stock. The uniform surface of a coated stock is required for the inks to perform well. Metallic silver on uncoated, for instance, just looks gray.

Let's end on a positive note, now that the technical mumbo-jumbo is over...these colors are really eye-catching! Some of the unique benefits that can be achieved are:

• These colors have a distinct look all their own. When used comprehensively throughtout a project they provide a three dimensional feel remarkable for simple two color printing.
• Silver, or tints of silver, can render a "holographic" quality to halftones. Turn the piece one way, there it is...turn it the other, there it goes. This works especially well on gloss stock.
• Duotones can take on a unique color cast. I know I said that the metallics don't blend well, but in most duotones the shadow color is only 10-15% value of the primary color, and the skew in the halftone screens will let you get away with it.
• The metallics, when printed on a dull coated stock, give an additional level of visual contrast because the ink layer is so shiny compared with the paper.
• These inks are not expensive to employ because it's just ink...no special processes are involved. The fact that most of these projects work well in just two color printing (e.g. black plus one metallic) means that the overall cost is low compared with full color CMYK.
• They don't get used much, so the effect catches people by surprise.

Keep your eyes open for a project where a new effect will make a difference, and this may do the trick for a cost which is no higher than simple multi-color printing. I have some samples which I'm happy to share, because the only way to appreciate these colors is to see them in person. Email me back or give me a call and we'll set something up. Until then, see you online!

Hugh Butler
Your friend in the printing business