[illvibe]

Ok, so now and then a web guy needs to print something and usually I can stumble through, but I though i'd ask:

Say I've got this card design. Which I've got at the right size and res(600dpi). Even though the image is grayscale, because it contains different shades etc I'll have to get it printed in full-colour yeah? My understanding is that pms can only be used for flat colours.

See the design here

[y498]

Firstly, get it digitally printed if you can - it will be way cheaper. To my understanding, multiple shades of grey/black is one color - just a variation of that ink.

If you are getting one side of the card in 1 color - it would be 1/0, if your card is greyscale, I really don't think it would be 4/0 - simply because they would not have to put in any other colors of ink...

Again, try and go digital - cheaper, good and sharp quality. My shop does digital cards on nice heavy stock for like $>125 canadian (depending on project) (1000cards).

good luck, PM me with more direct questions if you want.

[pgo]

Originally Posted by y498

My shop does digital cards on nice heavy stock for like $>125 canadian (depending on project) (1000cards).

Decent price.

[Alexanda]

Greyscale on digi print always looks patchy and shit.

[y498]

Depends on printer... our new $50,000 xerox printer does a pretty clean job... That and the several hundred black/greyscale jobs I have printed on it...

[cocknose]

Xerox?.... if its the xerox ex12 then don't trust its greyscale, digital printers are notorious for banding (streaky lines on gradient or block colour due to how the oil covers the drum). it may be a hell of alot cheaper but get an example first.... but if its just plain photography then digital could be the way to go!!!...

[y498]

Toss some addresses on the page, I'll send samples!

If I do, just order shit from us... :P

[illvibe]

Hmmm...because I need this printing done sort of soon, I think I'll need to go to a LOCAL shop for LOCAL people.

My main question was given the design (see first msg), would people recommend spot colour or full colour. I understand full colour printing and think I get how spot colour works, but I'm just making sure because this card happens to have a pretty small colour palette (ie red and grayscale) and I'm just wondering if there's a cheaper way than full colour.

[d*d]

If it's grayscale, then providing it is just shades of k(from cmyk) then you wouldn't need four colour, if it uses a spot colour red and grayscale it will be two colour and therefore cheaper than four colour.
However....
spot colour would be pointless with digital printing since it relates to a colour pre-made that would go into an ink chamber of a printing press. But if it is a short run, say less than 500 a4 sheets then it'll still be cheaper to go digital, decent quality digital is a possibility.

[Alexanda]

You can do a spot with digi print now, i know because I did a book using it.

[illvibe]

Originally Posted by d*d

If it's grayscale, then providing it is just shades of k(from cmyk) then you wouldn't need four colour, if it uses a spot colour red and grayscale it will be two colour and therefore cheaper than four colour.
However....
spot colour would be pointless with digital printing since it relates to a colour pre-made that would go into an ink chamber of a printing press. But if it is a short run, say less than 500 a4 sheets then it'll still be cheaper to go digital, decent quality digital is a possibility.

Right. So if I can do it as a two colour job, how would I prepare the job to be spot colour? It's not hard in illustrator when you're dealing with flat colour shapes etc, but I'm assuming I'll need to convert the img to be pms friendly so that the printer can handle it with one colour, yeah....??? (Geez, my lack of print knoweldge is embarassing).

[d*d]

in Illustrator, you choose the pantone swatch you want to use windows - swatch libraries - pantone (uncoated or coated, doesn't matter). Then everywhere you use that colour make sure that it is only shades of that swatch (you can have as many different shades as you want, in the colour pallette there will be a slider).
It will be important to make sure no rogue colours are present before it goes to print so if you go to document info, you can check that only one spot colour (your pantone) is in the document and make sure there are no cmyk and definately no rgb objects in there.

[d*d]

Originally Posted by cantona

You can do a spot with digi print now, i know because I did a book using it.

It'll still be printed as cmyk, spot colour doesn't exist in digital printing, so far as I'm aware you don't get pantone ink cartridges for them

[illvibe]

Originally Posted by d*d

in Illustrator, you choose the pantone swatch you want to use windows - swatch libraries - pantone (uncoated or coated, doesn't matter). Then everywhere you use that colour make sure that it is only shades of that swatch (you can have as many different shades as you want, in the colour pallette there will be a slider).
It will be important to make sure no rogue colours are present before it goes to print so if you go to document info, you can check that only one spot colour (your pantone) is in the document and make sure there are no cmyk and definately no rgb objects in there.

But is this possible with a non-vector image? This is my big question...

[d*d]

no you will have to do that in photoshop, and that is a whole new world of pain

[dan]

Aye, Create a new channel, set the spot colour as your pantone, copy in the information you need for that colour, repeate with each colour. Blank out all your CMYK channels. Save as Photoshop DCS 2. job done... ish.

[illvibe]

Cheers dan...my understanding was that if I end up having a stackload of pms colours in the job, it'd be cheaper just doing it in full colour. Yeah?

[Alexanda]

no its digi with a single spot, brand new printer, team impression has one in leeds.

[d*d]

Originally Posted by cantona

no its digi with a single spot, brand new printer, team impression has one in leeds.

So it's a digital printer with a spot colour ink, or a digital printer with spot colour software - http://www.creo.com/global/about_cre...04/040220R.htm like this?