Before mixing PANTONE spot color inks, you must understand the basic ink mix.
1. Preparation of light ink
Transparent white is a semi-transparent colloidal material with the properties of offset ink produced by mixing about 25% to 28% of translucent nano-calcium and resin oils. It has the technology of PANTONE basic color inks. Characteristics, according to the deployment of any ratio will not affect the printing performance, and the color is light and odorless, there is a good fixation drying force and post-printing gloss. Transparent white has the following characteristics:
1 high transparency, light color, suitable for multicolor overprint;
2 has good fluidity, elasticity and mixing;
3 Drying speed, high gloss, storage stability.
Many printing companies still use traditional white ink to mix light-colored ink, but the color effect is not very good, because the white ink is produced by achromatic pigments, and the content of powdery pigments is usually 60% to 70%. less. The light ink formulated with white ink has the disadvantages of large ink ratio, poor transfer performance, and easy emulsification; low gloss, poor light resistance, and easy powdering; and strong decoloration and hiding power. Therefore, it is recommended that printing companies use transparent white as far as possible when deploying light-colored inks, and it is better not to use white ink or use them in proportion to transparent white.
2. Preparation of dark ink
Dark ink refers to the relatively high concentration of the ink, the transparent white content is less, mainly made of color ink deployment. In the dark ink preparation, the general printing samples can be formulated according to the formula proportion of the PANTONE Color Matching Guide, but some special colors and technical performance requirements of the product must be adjusted. For products with high color density and requiring two printing, due to the thick ink layer, the back of the printed part is easy to be dirty, and the ink with fast fixing and drying can be used, or some amount of red dry oil can be added, and conditions can also be added to facilitate the The desiccant and anti-adhesive agent (provided by a professional ink company) for the middle layer of the dry, select a good absorption of paper, printing speed can be reduced and increased dusting. In addition, the deployment of a dark blue ink containing a higher component of blue light, should pay attention to the chemical structure of the light blue contains antioxidant groups, take the principle of the first test and then production, in order to prevent poor print drying.
3. Process requirements
The preparation of PANTONE spot color inks must consider the post-printing process. For the products requiring post-printing and water-based coating, the wax remover and wear-resistant additives should be added less when adding ink, and the anti-wear additives should be added. Can make the ink film smooth and wear-resistant, but will make the surface structure of the ink layer changes, is not conducive to water-based coating and coating. If the dryness of the red oil is excessive, the ink will be quickly dried and crystallized, resulting in poor coating and gloss. In addition, when the spot color ink is dispensed, the proofing paper provided by the printing manufacturer must be consistent with the printing paper in order to prevent the color difference from being too large. The deployment of spot-color inks should also consider the application characteristics, for large-area field printing inks, the viscosity can not be too high, high viscosity and easy to pull the paper, so that the ink film surface is not smooth. Also consider the season, the winter viscosity is lowered, and the summer is relatively higher. From the perspective of application performance of spot color inks, the accuracy of ink color is the most important. Therefore, it is best to use PANTONE basic color ink to match spot color inks. Formulas based on PANTONE basic inks are very versatile and can guarantee the ink index. . Here are two commonly used PANTONE spot color ink preparation method - PANTONE color matching method 1.PANTONE color card comparison method
The PANTONE Color Matching Guide contains 1114 PANTONE spot colors, printed on glossy coated and offset paper, and fan-shaped binding, providing users with a convenient selection method for selection and comparison. All PANTONE color guides are marked with PANTONE color names below. (numbering) and blending ratio, all colors are composed of a set of 14 standard basic color inks and transparent white. When receiving the customer's standard color samples, you can directly compare with the PANTONE color card color guide, find a relatively similar color standard, and then determine the hue according to the actual color difference, find out the main cause of color difference, and then press the result of the judgment Formulated ink, convenient and practical.
2. Weighing method
When receiving the customer's standard color samples, the PANTONE color card can be used for the initial comparison, to find a relatively similar PANTONE number color scale, according to its basic color, with 1/100 precision medical balance formulation debugging. The color of PANTONE color code usually consists of 2 to 4 basic colors. The basic color ink can be weighed in proportion. The amount of weighing can be more appropriate, and the name and weight of each basic color ink are marked. . Each basic color ink is removed by PANTONE proportioning method using a subtractive method, placed on a glass plate (40cm x 60cm, better with electric heating), and blended after mixing.
The formulated ink is printed with a certain amount of ink using an IGT fitness instrument. The printed sample is compared with a standard color sample, and the complementary color is repeated until it matches the standard color sample. Then, the remaining basic color ink weight in the sulfuric acid paper is weighed and calculated. The consumption of each basic color ink is converted into percentage. This method is called recipe reduction. The more times the method prints in the operation, the greater the consumption error of the basic color ink is. In order to improve the accuracy, the formula can be weighed again according to the converted percentage formula, and the accuracy of the formula thus obtained is relatively high. This method is suitable for the deployment of PANTONE spot color ink. As long as it has a certain color science basis and weighing knowledge, it can quickly grasp the color matching rules.
With the deepening of China’s opening to the outside world, the fusion of Eastern and Western cultures, and the increasing demand for the preparation of various spot color inks, the PANTONE color system as a color standard is an inevitable trend. It is also our printing and ink industry and international standards. One of the quicker ways. The colleagues in the printing and ink industries should jointly meet the challenges of new technologies and make full use of the PANTONE color matching method to innovate continuously. Recently, PANTONE has newly introduced six color ink standards for color pearl, metallic and high fidelity. These new varieties contain updated ink distribution ideas and deserve our joint research and exploration.