Hexachrome
This image represents conventional CMYK printing
This image represents Hexachrome printing
For most printing conventional colour made up of Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Black is quite acceptable. However where extra vibrancy and impact is needed Hexachrome may be the solution.
The gamut of colours which can be accurately reproduced in CMYK is considerably smaller than RGB. Hexachrome is an attempt to bridge the gap by providing Colour Printing with a larger range than is possible with CMYK.
This figure shows a comparison between the gamut of colours in CMYK and Hexachrome.
In the Hexachrome process Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Black colours of conventional printing are supplemented with Orange and Green. This means a much greater range of Pantones can be reproduced accurately, and pictures look much more vibrant and life-like.
Pantone produce plugins for Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Illustrator to enable designs to be produced in six colours using the Hexachrome system. The suite of plugins is called Pantone Hexware. This is available from www.designface.co.uk
Alternatively we would be pleased to carry out the conversion of photos to Hexachrome at additional cost, agreed on sight of copy. Please note: For Hexachrome conversions only it is very important that images are supplied in RGB format. This is because the Hexachrome gamut is bigger than CMYK.
There are currently no economical ways of proofing Hexachrome prior to print. However artwork can be ‘proved’ by producing a Montage Wet Proof prior to a larger Hexachrome job being printed.
Metal FX®
Metal FX is an exciting technology that allows a wide range of Metallic colours to be printed by simply adding a base of Metallic Silver to the conventional CMYK mix.
The first stage of the process is to print a base of opaque Metal FX® Metallic Silver ink.
Then the CMYK element of the image is printed over the top.
Metal FX® allows any number of metallic colours to be incorporated in to a conventional CMYK print job. An ultra opaque fast drying silver is applied in various tints in the areas to be metallisized and tints of CMYK inks are applied on top to produce the metallics. The eye-catching effects that can be achieved are possible without the excessive extra cost normally associated with process plus spot colour print.
This is achieved with just one pass through the press.
Please note: The Metal FX® process is most effective on Gloss Art Paper. Whilst good results can also be achieved on Matt Art (Business Cards) or (Handouts) the results are less predictable.
There are currently no economical ways of proofing Metal FX®. However artwork can be ‘proved’ by producing a Montage Wet Proof prior to a larger Metal FX®. job being printed.