Thread: How to print deep blue

there is no reason that you cant add it as an extra pantone colour, obviously the printing price would go up from a 4 colour to 5 colour. if however it is a big solid i prefer to lay a halftone behind it 1st, then put the solid down. i know its extra work but depends on the size of the solid and the size of machine (rolling power) its being printed on, which could take it up to 6 colour.. in corel if the solid is put in and when colour seps is on the print preview should automatically give this the 5th plate.

You mention that you intend to print the job offset but you make no mention of what sort of stock you intend to print it on. My recommendation would be to try printing the images on a gloss stock with good holdout and then soften everything up with a coat of satin aqueous coating. The high holdout of the gloss coated stock will allow you to come closer using the cmyk palette. It may take you a couple of rounds of color correction and proofing but i didnt see a single image on your link that couldnt be matched reasonably close with cmyk. If all else fails you could go with 5th color touch plate as you described but it will be hard to accurately proof. You may wind up having to mess with various colors on press to achieve what you're looking for if you wind up going the 5th color route. Good luck and let us know how you make out.

I have to agree with Tom, after looking at the blues from the website used in some of the artists renderings I see no reason these could not be reproduced with typical CMYK. A good prepess department would be needed to make separations as these are more than likely not in a digital format. This would be the key first step. Once on press, if it has Image Control or Inpress (Heidelberg) matching the color and keeping it consistant should be a walk in the park.

Looking at the website I could not tell if there is any gloss due to the paintings being done with oils or water, if there is depending on the gloss level desired you could go either aqueous or UV.

All in all, the works should be able to be reproduced on an offset printing press.

All modern printers need there to be black and colour cartridges, containing ink, to print.

Thanks for all who replyed to my question. At the same time I am sorry for showing you not very good examples on the web site. I have to tell that those images on the web site have been taken "not professionally" and probably couldn't represent the true effects of the artist's canvas colors. Some of those website images have been used from CMYK files. One has to see the real works to see the difference of the colors. When I take the digital photos and load it to my computer, I can see how different it looks from the original paintings. I guess the human eye perceives the colors a little differently than the digital camera renderings. Most of the time, the blue becomes lighter in tone in digital camera.

Here is an example of picture that is a little better than the web site examples. What I am trying to say is that. It is difficult to capture the color effect 100% in digital camera. Then, the effect further degrades when printed. I have seen examples of the artist's works printed in Korea, Japan, Germany, China etc. Although, some of them comparably better than others, the optical effect of the blue medium is still not there. That is why I am wondering if adding the fifth solid color could make the printed copies better.
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Sorry for the previous mistake. I am attaching an image file. I hope it works. Please see the attachment.

i cant see why there would be a problem printing this personally, i did however once print some christmas cards for an 'Artist' in pantone 032 red, when she came to collect the red wasnt quite red enough.... lol i threw the whole job on the incinerator and told her to go elsewhere... kept the workshop warm i suppose... she did see a pantone swatch before i went to print and agreed it... some people eh????

Print it on a pearlescent face stock, lay down a blue PMS spot colour, reverse out other areas and lay down an opaque solid white base with your process colours over the solid white to achieve the luminescent result you are seeking in the blue areas only

Have you tried this? C=100, M=80, Y=0, K=40