How does opaque white set up on metallic material?
Do you need to print on metallic materials to simulate gold, silver or make any shade metallic? The best way to do this is to leave only a few elements with a metallic look and make the rest of the graphics matte. To do this you will need to print white as a base for four-color; perhaps you simply need to print white as a special color? With our video tutorial and detailed instructions, we will show you how to properly create and set up opaque white on your print file.
In this tutorial we will explain step by step how to correctly configure opaque white on metallic printing material. The images to the right illustrate the individual steps. to correctly configure opaque white you will need to perform these four steps:
- Create the “HPI-White” spot color.
- Create levels
- Color the elements with HPI-White color.
- Verify settings via Preview color selections
1. Create the spot color “HPI-White”
First, create a new color swatch. To do this, call up the Color panel(Window > Color). Set the color values C100 M0 Y0 K0 [Photo: 1.1], then select the option Create new sample… from the panel menu. N omine the “HPI-White” color sample. Now change the color type to Spot Tint [Photo: 1.2] and confirm by clicking OK. You will find the newly created spot tint color in the Samples panel (Window > Samples).
2. Create the layers
At this point we recommend that you create the Die-cut, Opaque White, and Four-color layers. Layers serve only to make it easier for you to prepare the file correctly and have no direct influence on the assignment of a color. Call up the Layers panel (Window > Layers). To create additional layers, click on symbol + [Photo: 2.1]. Change the name of the layers by double-clicking on each one. It is essential that the layer containing the elements to be colored in opaque white be on top of the one containing the four-color. Now you will need to move the individual elements to the corresponding layer. Select the affected element with the selection tool. A small square will be displayed to the right of the layer [Photo: 2.2]. Drag it to the desired layer. Repeat this step until all elements are placed on the correct layer.
3. Color the elements with HPI-White color.
When using a metallic printing material, there are two instances when opaque white needs to be printed:
- White nontranslucent elements should be printed.
- Prevent the colored elements from appearing metallic. In this, opaque white is printed as a base on which to then print the colored elements
3.1. Configure items to be printed blank
Select the desired elements using the selection tool and assign them the HPI-White spot color from the Samples panel(Window > Samples) [Photo: 3.1]. Make sure these elements are on the “Opaque White” layer.
3.2. Configure colored elements so that they do not appear metallic
Select the desired elements with the selection tool. Copy the elements using the key combination cmd ⌘ + c (Windows: Ctrl+c). Select the Opaque White layer and duplicate the elements at the same location by clicking on the “Opaque White” layer and using the key combination cmd ⌘+ f (Windows: Ctrl + f). Now color the duplicated elements, with the spot color HPI-White, from the Samples panel(Window > Samples). It is essential that these elements be set to overprint, otherwise the underlying four-color scheme will not print. To do this, select the elements with the selection tool, call up the Attributes panel(Window > Attributes) and assign Fill Overprint or Track Overprint [Photo: 3.2], as appropriate, to the affected graphic elements. Repeat this step until all duplicate elements are colored with HPI-White.
4. Verify the settings by Previewing color selections.
Call up the Color Selections Preview panel (Window > Color Selection Preview) [Photo: 4.1]. First make sure that the overprint preview box is checked. After that, hide the HPI-White color. The underlying four-color scheme should continue to be visible while the areas that are printed exclusively in white will disappear.