4 Color Process that WOWS!!!!!!

I wanted to share this article with you about producing an exceptionally vibrant job with the use of 4 high octane inks. TOYO manufactures an ink set called Kaleido. These 4 colors produce color significantly outside the gamut of conventional 4 color process. The rest of this article was writen by our Chief Color Technician, Gary Hampson, and should be used as a guide if you want to utilize this technology to its fullest potential. I highly recommend giving it a try and I would be happy to assist you if you decide to give it a go.

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Are you having trouble hitting your corporate colors in CMYK? Maybe the extended color gamut of Kaleido Inks will solve this problem and save you one or two ink units on press. The yearly savings could be quite substantial and well worth finding out. Below is a comparison of conventional CMYK (green) to Kaleido (red). You can see that overall there is a substantial increase in color gamut especially in the blue hues. The greens of forests and blues of big-sky landscapes can be enhanced quite dramatically with Kaleido.

Creating the Kaleido Ink Project    |    By: Gary Hampson

For years now the printing industry has been telling designers and content providers to send only separated CMYK images. Since color management through the use of ICC Profiles has been incorporated into most workflows, this rule may no longer apply. When it comes to preparing a project to be printed with TOYO Kaleido Inks, it most certainly does not apply.

Because the pigmentation of Kaleido Inks is sufficiently different than conventional process inks, a simple substitution of inks will not give the desired results. Substituting Kaleido Inks will increase the color range or gamut, but maintaining color balance will significantly decrease any benefits. All images should be separated from RGB to CMYK using the “TOYO Kaleido coated 1.0.icc” profile.
If some images are separated to SWOP, some to GRACoL, and yet some to KALEIDO, it will be very difficult for the press operator to figure out any color balance. The chart on the last page will illustrate this. While some colors are very similar, some are quite different because of the different processes and inks used.

Images should be kept in the RGB color space right up until the time the file is processed for proofing or plating. Color managed conversions can take place seamlessly during the refining/ripping process. This is perhaps the best way to insure that all images are being separated correctly.

From a design perspective, the most troubling aspect of using Kaleido Inks may be the fact that there are no published (printed) color charts or chip books to let you know exactly what the color palette of your project will look like on press. Lake County Press does provide a proofing solution calibrated to the Kaleido color space. We can output your color palette in the early stages of design so you will know what to expect later.

When choosing your colors, avoid using separated CMYK values. While these may be the most familiar to you, they may be the least likely to reproduce as expected. It is preferable to choose your colors in either the RGB or Lab color spaces with Lab being the best.



One method of choosing colors is to use the Pantone solid coated library for your initial choices.  See Below:

Then, convert to Lab.

And finally, to process. 

Even though it is a process color now, the color mode is Lab and it will not be converted to CMYK until it is ripped.

There are, however, two notable exceptions to this preference of leaving colors in the Lab color space. These would be the color Black and any Rich Black where you want to retain 100% black with specified CMY undercolor. Also, it is best not to leave colors as Spot unless they are actually printing as a spot color. One good reason for this is the fact that many or most RIPs will not properly render spot color transparency, especially if mixed with a process color.



NEED HELP UNDERSTANDING LAB

The following illustration may help in understanding the Lab color space. Where the a and b are 0,0 respectively, the color is a neutral grey. As the b value increases, the color becomes less blue or more yellow. As the a value increases, the color becomes less green or more red. L= lightness.  The chart below is a good visual of this explanation.

Here is one more illustration to help you understand how RGB color is separated differently for different color spaces. It shows RGB colors Separated SWOP (Web Offset), GRACol (Sheetfed Offset) and Finally KALEIDO (Sheetfed Offset) .

Back to my thoughts, what Gary has put together and I have shared here is fairly complex and should be understood prior to attempting. There has been a great deal of research and development put into perfecting this process and it can not be done effectively simply by substituting ink on press. If you try, you will be very disappointed and your results will not come close to your expectations. For further information please contact me at Lake County Press, Inc. - 847-561-5639. I will be happy to assist you in your project and help you get the most out of the process!