Metallic ink/spot colour

[Simon Beck]

I'm pleased to say that my logo-design business is definitely picking up - I'm getting two or three commissions a week, plus a fair amount of web-design work. But I've just come up against an interesting problem.

A client has asked me to design a logo for her in purple and gold. She would like to have stationery etc. printed using metallic gold ink. I usually supply a finished logo as a CMYK EPS file, a line art EPS for monochrome use and a white-only EPS for reversing-out.

My client is happy to use a flat colour approximation (pale beige instead of gold) for screen use and desktop printing, but how can I provide the spot colour information for professional printing? Should I additionally supply a CMYK EPS without the gold elements plus a line-art EPS containing only the spot colour? How do I ensure that the CMYK and spot elements are aligned?

Also, what else do I need to know about metallic inks?

Hope you can help!

[Simon Beck]

I'm pleased to say that my logo-design business is definitely picking up - I'm getting two or three commissions a week, plus a fair amount of web-design work. But I've just come up against an interesting problem.

A client has asked me to design a logo for her in purple and gold. She would like to have stationery etc. printed using metallic gold ink. I usually supply a finished logo as a CMYK EPS file, a line art EPS for monochrome use and a white-only EPS for reversing-out.

My client is happy to use a flat colour approximation (pale beige instead of gold) for screen use and desktop printing, but how can I provide the spot colour information for professional printing? Should I additionally supply a CMYK EPS without the gold elements plus a line-art EPS containing only the spot colour? How do I ensure that the CMYK and spot elements are aligned?

Also, what else do I need to know about metallic inks?

Hope you can help!

[Klaus Nordby]

One simple solution, if you want to work with the CMYK formats: use no Yellow anywhere in your design, except for the gold spot color - then tell the printer to use te Y plate for the gold spot.

[gwpriester]

This may help you Simon

Workbook 23 - Working with Pantone Colors.

The next page deals with creating an EPS file.

And Workbook 27 - Creating A PDF File which puts your file in a format to give to the printer.

Gary