High Fidelity Printing

[jimjam]

Hello

I currently work for a packaging printer where 95% of our work (250 orders a week) is printed using spot colours.

There has been a number of discussions about printing using high fidelity system such as Hexachrome (all presses in plant are 6 colour) to reduce washups.

Does anybody have any experience or advice on this?

Is Hexachrome the best option or does another method give better results?

Any information is greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

[gordo]

Hello

I currently work for a packaging printer where 95% of our work (250 orders a week) is printed using spot colours.

There has been a number of discussions about printing using high fidelity system such as Hexachrome (all presses in plant are 6 colour) to reduce washups.

Does anybody have any experience or advice on this?

Is Hexachrome the best option or does another method give better results?

Other methods give better results.

Hexachrome is not designed to simulate spot colors with screen tint builds. Instead it is a proprietary system that combines a swatchbook of flat tint screen tint builds which is used to specify colors and a proprietary ink hue set that uses fluorescing agents in the C, M, Y, O, and G inks. So, PANTONE Hexachrome is a unique six-color inkset, and NOT a CMYK ++ system.
If you use "Big H" Hexachrome the integrity your CMYK images are effected by the special CMY inks. The fluorescing agents can make the inks problematic on press and unsuitable for packaging containing food items.

Big H Hex seems not to be supported by Pantone anymore since their web pages have been "under constuction" for over two years.

Most shops will use small H Hex. I.e. conventional C, M, Y, K inks with conventional O, and Green, or Orange and Violet, or Warm Red and Blue extended process colors. They then create their own swatchbooks from which creatives can select their colors. See here:

Quality In Print: The Color Atlas - helping designers to specify color

sixth one down for a sample of what one would look like.

Opaltone is another system that is functionally similar to Hex but uses a 7 color set of non-flourescing inks.

Both Esko and Kodak have solutions that allow you to use the inkset of your choice, and I believe the number of extended process colors of your choice to build screen tint combinations to replace standard spot colors (like Pantone) as well as unique brand colors. They base their recipes on an ICC profile and/or a look up recipe based on your print condition (inks, substrate, screening, etc.) hence they are more accurate an flexible.

best, gordon p

[meddington]

In addition to gordo's comments, it should be noted that although there can be significant financial benefits to moving toward an extended gamut print condition (reduced # of washups, ganging of jobs, etc) there is definitley significant work to be done up front, a higher requirement for process control, as well as some caveats. Press calibration and characterization are required, which isn't so unusual, but determining optimal solid targets (CIElab) and tonality goals ("dot gain") for special colors can be challenging. Also note that many spot colors that previously would have printed as single channel solids may now be multi-color tint builds, and hence have a larger propensity for variation (both color and registration), and might not be as visually appealing as a screened tint rather than a solid. Done well though (with products designed with this in mind), extended gamut can be quite good. I am impressed with the amount of extended gamut printing seen in grocery stores lately

[gordo]

To expand on meddington's comments. Since spot colors are not formulated to be screened nor over-printed you will need to work with your ink supplier to develop "extended" process inks that will perform on press like a conventional ink. This is not a big problem to overcome though. I've gotten success with one iteration with ink vendors when setting up trade show presses.

In tests run by RIT, the consistency of screen tint builds through the run is similar to the consistency of a single spot color - both will vary a bit, the multi-color build a bit more than the single color but both within acceptable levels. Most screen tint builds will consist of 2 colors - a minority use 3 colors and none use more than 3 colors. GCR techniques are used to help stabilize color builds. The use of FM screening, where appropriate, also helps stabilize color on press.

In my experience the use of Orange and Green as extra colors is not very popular - mostly because those colors don't extend the gamut in the regions where most designers specify spot colors.
Generally I see Red and Violet doing most work with Green replacing Red or Violet for specific runs.

At the present moment the major users of this technology are grocery store house brands (Publix Market, Safeway, Dominics, et. al.) because they most certainly need to drive down costs and also have a wide range of products to cover. It's worth checking out their products with a loupe. Frito-Lay chips packages are also done this way. Head over to your local grocery and put a loupe to:



FM screening and Spot color replacement. Yum yum.

best, gordo

[Mike Strickler]

Yes, 6-color process printing is potentially very rewarding. Run the same inks for most or all jobs, eliminates most washup, one-click separations with no manual spot builds. So why isn't everyone jumping in?

It requires a big, expensive project to put it in place (don't forget that at the same time you may also be switching to stochastic for the full benefit), and very few people who are competent to do this work--there is no "off-the-shelf" drop-in product for this. It requires big changes in thinking about color; process control--not the typical American printer's strong suit--is important. Mike E. and I have a colleague who has converted several large package printers to CMYK+n printing, and they have all reverted. They just weren't mentally ready. But some large companies, as Gordo points out, are doing it, and the benefits are huge. (One of the advantages, by the way, is more accurate proofs, but that's a subject for another day.)

Mike Strickler
MSP Graphic Services

[printsjeff]

Hi Jimijam,

You might consider a four color HD set of inks distributed through Midland Paper craig.busby@midlandpaper.com . We have used this on a number of packaging projects and you will be surprised at the results. Eye popping results

Thank you
Printsjeff

[gordo]

[SNIP]It requires big changes in thinking about color; process control--not the typical American printer's strong suit--is important. Mike E. and I have a colleague who has converted several large package printers to CMYK+n printing, and they have all reverted. They just weren't mentally ready. But some large companies, as Gordo points out, are doing it, and the benefits are huge.[SNIP]
Mike Strickler
MSP Graphic Services

Amen. The barriers are not technical. They are cultural.

The majority of brand owners appear to be content to simply do what they have always done - have their creatives specify a spot/brand color and have it take up a unit on the press. Implementing a brand color system that is based on using screen tint builds using an expanded process ink set (5, 6, or 7 color) is a fundamental shift in brand management that impacts the entire chain from package design to final presswork. The benefits are huge to the brand owners - but it does represent a change in thinking.


Another barrier is that much of the original graphics for packaging are complex (due to the number of spot colors) files that are typically owned by prepress trade shops who have a vested interest in maintaining the staus quo. 


Where this process is most successful is when the brand owner imposes this process on the printer - i.e. you do it this way or you don't get our business.

The other case is when the printer themselves decides to break away from their competition by offering a unique solution. But this is rare because, sorry to say, the vast majority of printshop managers have the attitude of "why fix it if it ain't broke." Innovation, marketing, solutions creation are words that are rarely, if ever, heard in the conversations of most printers.

best, gordon p

[Luc St-Pierre]

I have put together some custom color models for flexo printers. The big dream of printers to get rid of all spot color inventory is not visible in a near future. But, flexo printers still use custom color models in the crying need to extend the CMYK color gamut. Specially in flexo where the tonal range is shorter, densities often lower and dot gain needing to be monitored very closely. In my flexo experience, the most common cutstom model is CMYK-Line Black-Green and Red. Very few of my customers will use blue in their model. They are mostly interested in snappy limy greens, clean reds and vibrant oranges and full density black for vector elements. Prepress and color management is where all of this will require highly skilled personel, day-in-day-out collaboration between prepress and pressroom. Flexibility is also a must. Don't get caught in a system so stiff that you will end up printing a simple 4 spot color job using 7 decks on press !!! As I once wrote on this site, maybe the CMYK days are coming to an end even in offset. My kids can print wider gamuts on their 29$ inkjets than any printed book you can find. Spending all the time in front of monitors, their cultural color references are RGB. Any printed material looks faded to them. Gamut expanding models for any printing industry are there to stay and grow.

[jimjam]

Where this process is most successful is when the brand owner imposes this process on the printer - i.e. you do it this way or you don't get our business.

The other case is when the printer themselves decides to break away from their competition by offering a unique solution. But this is rare because, sorry to say, the vast majority of printshop managers have the attitude of "why fix it if it ain't broke." Innovation, marketing, solutions creation are words that are rarely, if ever, heard in the conversations of most printers.

best, gordon p

Hi All

Thanks for all the information supplied it is greatly appreciated.

We are in quite a fortunate position that it is one of our largest clients (approx 6000 orders per year) that is looking to move away from all the spot colours and enquiring about alternatives ..... ie they want a price reductions again!

Our sales team is also looking to offer an alternative to our customers and come up with innovative ideas.

All prepress and platemaking is in plant using a number of seats of Artpro and Nexus so the process control could be managed it is maybe a case of how we market the process its just getting an idea of which would be the most suitable.

Thanks Jimjam

[Luc St-Pierre]

The first step is to make your color model work. Work on prepress, work on proofing and work on press.
This is the “blood, sweat and tears” part. When this is done and succesfully done, the product should sell itself. Make a demo-kit showing images in CMYK and the same images in your color model. Remember that expanded gamut is an added value, not a bargain product. Work out realistic pricing for it. A snappy colorful packaging has a shorter shelf life than a dull-printed equivalent, this has been demonstrated by marketing specialists. Do some research in this field and put together supporting material for salespeople. Good luck.