1. Spot colors and their characteristics

Spot color ink refers to a pre-mixed specific color ink, such as fluorescent yellow, pearl blue, metallic gold and silver ink, etc. It is not mixed out by CMYK four colors, and color registration means accurate color. It has the following four characteristics:

1. Accuracy.

Each type of color has its own fixed hue, so it can ensure the accuracy of colors in printing, thus largely solving the problem of color transmission accuracy;

2. On the ground.

Spot colors are generally defined by solid colors, no matter how light this color is. Of course, spot colors can also be screened (Tint) to present any shades of spot colors;

3. Opacity.

Spot ink is a kind of covering ink, which is opaque and can be covered on the ground;

4. Wide color gamut.

The color gamut in the color register is very wide, exceeding the RGB color gamut, not to mention the CMYK color space. Therefore, a large part of the colors cannot be presented with CMYK four-color printing inks.

2. Reasons for choosing color in color dot printing

In color dot printing, the characteristics of spot color inks are often used to select and use them. In general, it is generally used in two situations:

1. In order to print some visible light colors outside the color gamut of CMYK four-color printing ink on the printed matter. The color gamut of CMYK four-color printing ink is obviously insufficient compared with the visible light color gamut, and the color gamut of spot color ink is wider than that of CMYK four-color printing ink, so it can express many colors other than CMYK four-color ink;

2. To make up for the lack of printing technology. Due to the errors in the various processes in the overall printing process, equipment maintenance, operating environment, human omissions and mechanical wear, it is difficult to obtain flat and uniform dot colors when printing small dots below 153, we can use the same color The full version of the color registration (ie spot color solid) instead of small dots for printing, you can easily get a flat large area of ​​color. In addition, sometimes in order to be able to clearly express fine graphics, such as mixed-color graphics or thin lines with fine strokes, etc., spot colors are often used to ensure that fine lines can be sufficiently realistic and delicate.

3. Some issues that should be paid attention to when using spot colors before printing

1. Unification of spot color names.

In different software, the names of the two identical colors may be different. For example, FreeHand named PANIONEI IF5 as PANTIONE 1F5CVC. In this way, when the FreeHand graphic object is placed in PageMaker for typesetting, there will be three names for the same color, and three printing plates will be generated during color separation output, causing output errors. Therefore, if the data file needs to be used in more than two kinds of software, before the integrated color separation output, it must be noted that the use name of the same spot color must be unified. A more common method is to use the color name in the tight hair sorting software as the standard, and rename the same spot color as a unified name in the color palette of various software.

2. The angle of spot color screen.

In general, spot colors are printed in the field, and dot processing is rarely done, so the angle of spot color screening is rarely mentioned. However, when using a light-colored screen with color registration, there will be problems with the design and modification of the screen angle of the spot color dots. If there is a spot color with dots and the color printed by other dots has an overprint area, the angle of the spot color screen must be considered. At this time, if the screen angle between the spot color dots and the screen angles of other colors is less than 30 degrees, there will be moire caused by the screen hit; if the angles overlap, it will cause ink overprinting problems, which will cause printed products Severely distorted colors. In addition, the screen angle of the spot color is generally preset to 45 degrees in the software (45 degrees are considered to be the most comfortable angles for human eyes, so that the dots can be arranged at the same angle as the horizontal and vertical lines can be reduced The ability of the human eye to perceive dots.) If a two-tone image or data file has both four-color black printing (generally in four-color screen printing, the black dots are placed at 45 degrees, yellow is 0 degrees, (Magenta is 15 degrees, cyan is 75 degrees)) If there are spot colors, or there are more than two spot colors, they will be output at 45 degrees during color separation and screening, so when using a light screen for spot colors, if It may be overprinted with other screen colors, you must open the dialog box of software color settings or print settings during color separation output, and modify the screen angle of spot colors.

3. Conversion from spot color to printing four colors.

Many designers often use the colors in the spot color inventory to define colors and perform coloring when doing graphic design, and then convert them into CMYK printing four colors when separating colors. At this time, you should pay attention to three points: First, the color gamut of the spot color is larger than the four-color gamut of printing. During the conversion process, some spot colors cannot be preserved for life and fidelity, and some color information will be lost; second, the output must be selected. " "Convert spot colors to four colors", otherwise it will lead to output errors; third, don't think that the CMYK color value ratio displayed next to the spot color number allows you to reproduce the effect of the spot color with the same CMYK component printing four-color ink ( If you can, you do n’t need a spot color.) In fact, if you do it in the same way, the obtained color will have a big difference in hue.

4. Trap processing of spot colors.

Since spot colors are different from printing four colors (printing four-color inks generate intercolors by overprinting each other, that is, their inks are transparent), it is usually not used to generate an intercolor with the overprinting of two spot colors. Obtain very dirty color effects (of course there are exceptions, such as the intentional use of spot color overprinting to produce the third color required for superposition and mixing, this third color is full, thick and real, such as: spot color yellow The spot color that is modulated by imprinting is red, and the two colors are overprinted to produce a stable deep red color, which is often used as the cover of the book, etc.) Keepaway). In this way, when using spot colors, as long as there are other colors next to the spot color graphics, you should consider trapping to prevent the occurrence of white border problems (the method of spot color trapping and related technical issues are more complicated, this is not Repeat).

5. Color matching system for spot colors.

When choosing a computer color matching system, first of all, it should be clear which is the spot color system and which is the CMYK four-color printing system, so as to know whether the color in the system you choose will have color conversion and whether it will be output during color separation There is color distortion. For example, the color matching systems commonly used in graphics software are PANTONE, TRUMATCH, FOCOLTONE, TOYO ColorFinder, ANPA-COLOR, RIC Color Guide, etc. Among them, TRUMATCH, FOCOL TONET ANPA COLORR are based on the four-color printing system, and others The ones that belong to the spot color system (PANTONE system covers a wide range, both printing and spot colors). That is to say, in these spot color matching systems such as PANTONE spot color, TOYO Color Finder and RIC Color Guide, many of them have exceeded the printing four-color gamut and cannot be displayed with four-color ink. The CMYK combination provided by the system The values ​​are only approximate. So if you select the color in the spot color color matching system and output it as a printing four-color separation; or refer to the corresponding CMYK combination value of the spot color approximately displayed in the system and use these values ​​to replace the printing four colors The original spot color will definitely result in color distortion. Secondly, it should be understood that when the spot color color matching system does color separation processing, unless specifically set to convert the spot color into CMYK four colors for output, otherwise, each used Spot colors will be automatically divided into a color version independently. In the same way, after the colors in the printing four-color color matching system are used for coloring, when the color separation is output, it will automatically be based on the CMY ratio of the color itself to the four printing plates without generating more Color version. Furthermore, it should be noted that in the bitmap environment, after the selected color (such as spot color) is used on the canvas, it will be automatically converted to the same color mode as the data file to which the color is applied (such as CMYK four-color mode) . Therefore, in the dot-matrix drawing software, spot colors must be intentionally added or specified (for example: adding and defining spot colors in Photoshop, there can be two situations: if the spot color is applied as a tone to the entire image , You need to convert the image to two-tone mode, and apply spot colors on one of the two-tone plates; if you use spot colors for specific areas of the image, you must create a spot color channel); and in the vector drawing environment, if Select or define a spot color, the color will exist as a spot color attribute unless the spot color attribute is specifically changed or converted into a process color (for example: a spot color added and defined in liiusttrator, even if it is referenced to The data properties of this spot color will not be changed in other Illustrator data files or the data file using the spot color will be opened with other vector software, etc.)
6. The cost of spot color printing.
In general, spot color printing is usually used for printing below three colors. If more than four colors are needed, CMYK four-color printing is appropriate. Because CMYK four-color printing is basically based on dot-overprinting, and spot colors are basically printed on the spot. Although spot colors are usually used only for local images, it is customary to double the price of ordinary printing inks when evaluating Estimated; in addition, if there are already four printing colors on the same layout, it is equivalent to one more color for printing, if the printing machine does not have extra printing units (such as printing machines with less than four colors or four-color printing machines) ), It takes twice as much time to print, and the cost is even higher.
In short, special care should be taken when using spot colors, otherwise it will not only cause color distortion, ruin your creativity and design, but also increase financial expenditure and unnecessary waste of time.

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