Bayard Printing - Design for Digital

60C, 40M, 40Y, 100K (240%) 40C, 20M, 20Y, 100K (180%) Secrets to great digital color. Print gamuts Gamut is the term used to describe the range of colors that a specific device can produce. If you’re accustomed to designing within the limitations of the traditional color gamut of the CMYK offset process, you’ll be pleasantly surprised to learn that the advanced technology of Kodak NexPress dry inks make it possible to exceed that gamut by 20%. Your computer monitor, however, can display many colors that are outside the gamut of any printing process, even a 600-dpi digital printer. In the same way, the inkjet or dye sublima- tion printer you may use to create proofs also has its own distinctive color gamut. The bottom line: what you see on your monitor or on your proof is not necessarily a good indication of the final printed result. The best way to know exactly how your color will look is to ask your printer to proof the job on the Kodak NexPress digital production color press. That’s one of the benefits of digital printing—proofs can be run on the same printer as the final output. Blacks and grays If you want to print a solid black area, use a formula that combines all CMYK colors to create a “rich” or “super” black. A few sample formulas are shown here and you can check with your printer for other variations that work well. If you’re planning to reverse white or light-col- ored type out of black, modify the for- mula to a slightly less rich mixture. Here again your printer is the best source of information as you learn about the capabilities of digital printing. For neutral shades of gray, you’ll get the best results with straight tints of black. Spot colors The NexPress press uses spot color mapping and special look-up tables to automatically match Pantone colors using CMYK dry inks. That means you don’t need to alter or reformulate Pan- tone and other spot colors. However, if you prefer the control of selecting your own CMYK formula, you can always convert Pantone colors yourself using standard Pantone-to-CMYK charts. Color gamut boundaries for Pantone, 4-color NexPress 2100 press, and 4-color offset press. Blue to Yellow Tones Green to Red Tones 100K 80K 40K 10K 7 pt Knock-out typography 4 Designing for Success Secrets to great digital color Pantone colors 4-color NexPress 2100 press 4-color offset