Onyx® White Paper

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Onyx White Paper ® Specialty Ink Tools October 2005 Onyx Version 6.5 Onyx Graphics - USA 6915 S. High Tech Drive Salt Lake City, UT 84047 Phone: 801.568.9900 Toll Free: 800.828.0723 www.onyxgfx.com White Paper Speciality Ink Tools 1 Specialty Ink Tools What are Specialty Inks? Speciality Inks are spot inks that are used to produce a specific effect that cannot be achieved using traditional CMYK inks. There are a variety of speciality inks available in the traditional printing industry and some of those inks are crossing over and are becoming readily available for the inkjet market. • A few examples of spot inks include: — White Ink — Varnishes and liquid laminates — Pantone® Inks Specialty Ink Tools were created to handle these specialty inks. This feature is key bit protected and can be purchased as an add-on for ProductionHouse and PosterShop. The tools are enabled for those devices that support spot channels and multi-layer printing either as a two-stage process or with staggered heads. File mode printers that support spot printing may also have this capability. For a list of supported printers-see Supported Printer Types. How do Specialty Ink Tools work? Specialty Ink Tools allow you to customize the separate layers of your image data and control how the layers are printed. Specialty Ink Tools provide innovative spot layer controls that allow you to customize and auto-generate spot layers directly from your image in Preflight without additional file preparation. Not only can you customize how and where you want the spot layers to be generated, you can also define the print order of your newly generated layers giving you added capabilities for a variety of output combinations. 2 White Paper Speciality Ink Tools This document focuses on using the Spot Layer Tools (a subset of the Specialty Ink Tools ) for printing specialty ink. It covers configuring a media for spots, general terminology needed for understanding layer generation options, types of output, application characteristics, and workflow strategies. Note: Onyx Workflow Products has long supported a “White as Spot” workflow. If you have predefined spot elements in your file you can configure RIPQueue to recognize the spot data and direct it to the spot channel. This requires you to create your spot data in your graphic application as opposed to the Speciality Ink Tools that auto-generate the spot data in Preflight. For more information on the White as Spot workflow - see the white paper titled “Working with White Ink” for RIP-Queue settings and file preparation instructions. Preparing a Media for Specialty Inks You must use a media that is configured for spots before you can use the tool. To create a new media with a spot ink configuration using the following steps; To create a media: 1. Highlight your printer and click > Media Manager 2. Select Media . 3. Enter your Media names and click > Color Setup. This opens the Color Setup for Media dialog. Color Setup for Media dialog Configured for Spots Now that you’ve opened the Color Setup dialog, configure the following settings. White Paper Speciality Ink Tools 3 To configure the media for spots: 1. Set your Ink Configuration to one that uses spots i.e. CMYKSS. Note: Your printer may list several usable ink configurations for spot. These ink configurations have either an “S” or “W”, use one that best represents your printers ink configuration. 2. Set the Primary Color Setup to CMYK. 3. Click > Insert to add “Spot1” to the Spot Color Setup. Tip: If you’re printer has two available spot channels and you want to use white ink in both, you can insert a second spot to be used for your highlight printing. Click > Insert a second time to add “Spot2”. 4. Click > Edit if you want to change the preview color of your spot. This is the color that will be used in Preflight to represent the layer. 5. Click > OK . Your media has now been configured for spots. Edit or create a Quick Set to use this media to fully automate multiple print jobs that use the same settings and use the correct Quick Set when you open your job in Preflight. Configuring Layers and Print Order If your printer uses layers, you’ll also see Configure Layers on the Color Setup for Media dialog. Configuring the layers turns on and off which inks to print. Click > Configure Layers to open this dialog. Configure Layers dialog 4 White Paper Speciality Ink Tools The following configuration is an example of printing a white layer first and the color layer second. Note: The data used in the white layer comes from the spot data found in the image. If you want to auto-generate spot data from your image, use the Spot Layer Tool to create the data for the white layer. In this example you want to print a white underlay before your print your image data. Configure two layers for your media and customize the print order. You must do this before you open the job in Preflight. To configure layers: 1. Highlight the Default layer and click > Edit or click > Add for a new layer. 2. Enter a layer name, for example: “White Layer 1” or “Color Layer 1”. 3. Check the inks you want to be part of that layer, for example check “Spot1” for the white layer and “CMYK” for the color layer. White Layer 1 Color Layer 1 4. Select for the Printing Method. This setting dictates the printer processing activity. Note: This printing method uses the data found in the image. The other printing methods are used to print flood fills for the selected inks - see the next section titled Printing Methods for more information. White Paper Speciality Ink Tools 5 After you’ve customized your layers, you will see them listed on the Configure Layer dialog. Each layer has a print order number in the Order column. Regardless of the order you added or edited your layers, you can define the correct Print Order using the Up and Down buttons. To reorder layers: 1. Highlight the layer and click > UP or Down until the layer is in the correct print order. Print Order Before you click > OK , the last thing you want to consider is which layer you want the label to print. Note: If your Quick Set is configured to print label information, you can determine which layer will print that information. Because you’re dealing with layers you don’t want to have the label information print multiple times or on top on itself. The default label color is black regardless of your layer. How you configure your layers will depend on the final output application. The next section explains the additional printing methods. If you’re ready to learn more about the Spot Layer Tools you can skip this section. Additional Printing Methods If your workflow requires specific layers to always be filled, you can configure the media for layers accordingly and print directly to the printer without opening your image in Preflight or using the Spot Layer Tools. 6 White Paper Speciality Ink Tools The other Printing Methods include; and . Here are a few examples of when you would select a printing method other than . — Fill Selected Channels; This will fill the layer with the selected ink(s) channel. Use this setting for multi-layer printers that implement a rewind command. Example: Print a flood fill layer of varnish as your spot and image data as usual (or as generated by Preflight). 1. Add two layers in the Configure Layers dialog; one for CMYK (Color Layer) and one for Spot1 (Varnish). 2. Configure the Spot1 layer to use and the CMYK layer to use . Check the appropriate inks used in each the layer. 3. Set the print order for the varnish to print second (2) . This will print the image first and the varnish second (on top). Color Layer Varnish Layer Print Order Expected Output: The CMYK layer will print using image data then Spot layer will fill the entire page with that ink channel, creating a flood fill. Tip: If you want to create ICC profiles with a white underlay, we recommend you configure one or more spot layers (Fill Selected) for white depending on the desired opacity for your application and one layer for colors (Print Selected). Once you have configured your layers, set the print order for the white layers to print first. This configures your media and allows you to print your linearization and ICC target swatches directly from Media Manager with a white underlay. White Paper Speciality Ink Tools 7 — Print Image, Fill Selected (Staggered Heads Only): This will print the ink (s) selected for the layer and prints the image as usual (or as generated by Preflight). Use this setting for printers with staggered heads. Example: Print a flood fill layer of white as your spot and image data as usual. 1. Add one layer in the Configure Layers dialog; Spot1 (White Underlay with Color). The fill layer and the image will print in the same layer. 2. Configure the Spot1 layer to use . Check only Spot1 for this layer because this is the only ink you want to be filled. 3. Because this printing method is for staggered heads only and you’ve only configured one layer, you do not need to define a print order. The actual print order will depend on the physical printer and where the inks are placed in their respective banks. White Layer with Color No Print Order Needed Expected Output: The regular CMYK data is printed as usual and the Spot layer will fill the entire page with the spot ink channel, creating a flood fill. 8 White Paper Speciality Ink Tools Spot Layer Tools In the next section, you’ll learn how to access the tool and the general terminology used. Because the Spot Layer Tools give you a variety of options for auto-generating the spot layers, you may want to explore the tool with a sample file of your own to familiarize yourself with the functionality. Where is the Spot Layer Tool? When you’re ready to use the tool, it can be located in Preflight on the Color Correction tab. To open the Spot Layer Tool: 1. Open the job in Preflight. 2. Select > Color Corrections tab. 3. Click Tools>> and select . The will open the feature set. 4. Check > Enable to activate the tool. Note: If the Enable checkbox won’t activate, the media you used to open the job has not been configured for spots. Create or Edit your media to support spot ink printing in Media Manager before opening your job in Preflight. Spot Layer Tool White Paper Speciality Ink Tools 9 Before you open a job, you’ll need to familiarize yourself with the terminology. Understanding the Terminology This section will help you understand the feature functions and how best to use the tool for your specific application. There are some examples in these descriptions but to better help you visualize the tool set - see Practical Applications and Workflow Examples. Enable Check > Enable to activate the tool set. Generation Options - Set Mask The mask is the part of the image that will not be printed, setting the mask color is optional. The default mask color is white. If the image you are printing contains white data, you will need a different background color to use as your mask. To set the mask color: Click the sample box to activate the color picker or use the drop down arrow to pick the color from the preview. Generation Options - Set Media Setting the media color is optional and serves two purposes. 1) If you want to preview the media color in Preflight, you can set the media color either from the image or from the color dialog menu. 2) If you have areas in your image that use the media color and you want that color to be handled with special consideration. For example; if you want the media color from the image to show through the design, you must first define your fill options, then set the media color and define the Media Color Handling Options as either “Spot Knockout” or “Full Knockout”. Note: The generation options are used in combination with the fill options, execpt when the the media color handling is set to “No Knockout”. If you want to auto-generate flood fills, underlay fills or mask fills it is not always necessary to set a mask or media color to get the desired results. To set the mask color: Click the sample box to activate the color picker or use the drop down arrow to access the Color Dialog menu. 10 White Paper Speciality Ink Tools Generation Options - Media Color Handling If you have set a media color, you have three options for how you would like the media color to be handled. The term “Knockout” means to remove from the selection. If you’ve set a media color, chances are you want some portion of the design to be removed to use the media color. • These are the option you have to choose from: — No Knockout — Spot Knockout — Full Knockout No Knockout If you’ve set a media color to help you visualize your output, choose this option. This will print the image and spot data with no knockout. Spot Knockout If you choose this option, RIP-Queue removes the spot data anywhere the image data matches the media color that you set. Use this option when you want to knockout the spot data but still print the image data that matches the media color. Full Knockout If you choose this option, RIP-Queue removes the spot data and the image data anywhere the image data matches the media color that you set. Use this option when you want to knockout the spot data and the image data, allowing the media to fully show through. Spot Channel This defines which spot channel you are working with and defaults to the first spot channel. Highlight Of A highlight is the auto-generated layer for Spot2 and it creates a fill in the image anywhere there is no data for Spot1. This option is only visible if your media has been configured for multiple spots. To create a highlight, change “Spot Channel” to Spot2 because that is the one you’re working with and then change the “Highlight Of ” to Spot1. Then use the tools to customize your highlight of Spot1. White Paper Speciality Ink Tools 11 Flood Fill This option auto-generates a flood fill for the entire image by combining the underlay and mask fills together. When you check this option, the underlay and mask fill sliders lock together and are set at 100%. You can change the opacity for the flood fill by moving either of the sliders. Underlay Fill Opacity This option auto-generates a fill in the selected spot channel where image data exists. The fill will be generated anywhere image data does not match the mask. For example, if your image is on a white background and the default (white) mask is used, this option will create a fill for all non-white data. Mask Fill Opacity This option auto-generates a fill in the selected spot channel where mask data exists. The fill will be generated anywhere the image data matches the mask color. For example, if your image is on a white background and the default (white) mask is used, this option will creates a fill for all white data. Choke and Spread Choke reduces the outer edge of the underlay. Use choke when you want to eliminate white from peaking out of the edge of your image and to compensate for missed registration of your printer. Spread increases the outer edge of the underlay fill. Use spread when you want a deliberate halo around the edge of your image. Choke and Spread work in tandem. Each mark on the slider represents 1 pixel width of choke or spread up to 10 pixels (+-) . The actual preview in Preflight is exaggerated from what is printed. This exaggerated display makes it easier for the user to see the results from moving the slider. Diffuse Edge Use this option when you want a gradual transition from the underlay to the mask to create a soft edge for the fill. Filter Once you’ve defined your settings, save them by exporting the filter to use on similar jobs. Filters are a global color correction that can be applied to Quick Sets to automate the printing process for multiple jobs that use the same settings. 12 White Paper Speciality Ink Tools Now that we’ve covered configuring a media for spots and the general terminology used in the Spot Layer Tool, you should be well equipped to experiment with your own sample files. Try different setting depending on your output application. The next section covers practical applications and a few workflow examples. Here you’ll learn about a few of the different types of output, application characteristics and workflow strategies. White Paper Speciality Ink Tools 13 Practical Applications In the sections that follow, you’ll find examples of practical application and the different types of output that can be achieved using the Spot Layer Tools. These are only a few of the possible applications; —Full Color Graphics These include POP, sign, and banner displays. —Garment Graphics These include fabric and direct to T-shirt printing. —Novelty Graphics These include printing on film (clear, backlit and decal) and your rigid materials (wood, metal, mirror etc.). Using white ink in these applications opens up new printing opportunities allowing you to provide prints on non-white (colored vinyl, rigid materials or fabric) and film (clear, backlit or decal). Types of Output The Spot Layer Tools allow you to create many different types of output and the ability to generate layers is the same, regardless of the material. The key is to determine the output application and configure the appropriate print order for your layers before you open your job in Preflight to decide how you want the layers to be autogenerated. The types of output generally fall into two categories; single-sided output and double-sided output. Here are a few examples of the single-sided output: Single-Sided: — Prints that need a layer of white under the image to reproduce the image as if it were printed on white. You must first configure multiple layers for your media; one CMYK and one White 14 White Paper Speciality Ink Tools layer. Use the Print Selected Channels as your printing method for both layers. Configure the Print Order to use Spot1 first (because this is our underlay), CMYK second. Note: Your specific application may require a different layer configuration. Use the previously described layer configuration for most single-sided output. There are two output possibilities that would use the same layer configuration; 1) In the first case, your image would be on a white background (such as a logo file or photo that has been previously masked). Because the background is white, the mask by default is white and you can create an Underlay Fill for your image that will fill only where there is image data. Then you could apply a choke (to hide the white) or spread (to create an outline of white). See Workflow Example 1. 2) In the second case, your image includes image data everywhere on the page such as a full color design or photo with a regular background. If you want the entire image to be filled with white, you would create a Flood Fill for your image that will fill the entire page. Choke and spread do not apply for the second case. Tip: Your layer configuration may require multiple layers for white depending on the desired opacity. You can add as many additional layers that you’ll think you’ll need, configure them accordingly. Another example of single-sided output: — Prints that use the media color as part of the image. In this case, your image would be on a white background and have large areas of the design you want to knockout (such as a logo or T-shirt design). Here you want those large areas substituted with media color. You would create an Underlay Fill for your image, set the media color from your image and choose Full Knockout for your media handling options. This will fully knockout the media and spot color and allow the media color to show through. If you choose Spot Knockout, it will only knockout the spot layer while printing the areas you set as media color (from your original image). This is useful when you’ve set the media color for preview purposes only and you still want the image data for White Paper Speciality Ink Tools 15 the media color to be printed. And the final example of single-sided output: — Prints that use white ink as a color as part of the image (or highlight). In this case, your image is on a colored background and there are white areas you want to print using white ink. You would set the mask from your background color, then create an underlay fill for your image. Anywhere there is white in your image will now fill with white ink as part of the underlay. If you’ve configured two spots for white, you can create an additional Highlight white layer for your second spot layer that only contains the white areas. You must configure multiple layers for your media; one CMYK, two White layers (one for each spot). Use the Print Selected Channels as your printing method for all layers. Configure the Print Order to use Spot1 first (because this is our underlay), CMYK second and Spot2 last (because this is the highlight). See Workflow Example 2. Here are a few examples of the double-sided output: Double-Sided: — Prints viewed from both sides where the image does not need to be flipped. You must first configure multiple layers for your media; two CMYK and one White layer. Use the Print Selected Channels as your printing method for both layers. Your white layer will print in between the two CMYK layers. Configure the Print Order to use CMYK first, White second and CMYK last. Note: Your specific application may require a different layer configuration. Use this layer configuration for most double-sided output. In this case, your image would similar to a single-sided print such that your image would be on a white background (such as a logo file or photo that has been previously masked) and you would create your fill a usual. 16 White Paper Speciality Ink Tools Another example of double-sided output: — Prints viewed from both sides where the image is flipped on the second side of the output for visual appeal or readability. In this case, your image is similar to a single-sided print either with a white background or a colored background and you would create your fill a usual. The difference here is that the image has either text or a prominent element that when viewed from the second side must be right-reading. You must flip the layers that need to print in reverse. In this case, your output requires an additional layer of ink to be printed to visually separate the two sides of your output. You must configure multiple layers for your media; two CMYK, two White layers and a third ink layer that uses black. Use the Print Selected Channels as your printing method for your CMYK and White layers and Fill Selected Channels for your black layer. You’ll need to configure one CMYK and one White layer to flip and put them in the correct Print Order either before or after the black layer. Now that you’ve learned about the different types of output, let’s use what we’ve learned to walkthrough a few workflow examples. White Paper Speciality Ink Tools 17 Workflow Examples In the sections that follows, you’ll find three examples of practical applications, based on the previously covered practical applications. The examples cover the basic generation workflow and settings used to produce the final output. • These examples include: — A Full Color Graphic, Single-sided Output — A Garment Graphic, Single-sided Output Workflow Example 1 - “Model_W” A Full Color Graphic, Single-sided Output Before we open our image we must configure our media for spots and two layers; one for CMYK and one for the white underlay. The layer configuration setting and print order should look like this: Underlay Layer Color Layer Print Order Note: Use the Print Selected Channels as your printing method for all layers. In this example we have a photo of a model on a white background and want to print the photo on a colored material. The photo requires an underlay fill and a choke. 18 White Paper Speciality Ink Tools To create an Underlay Fill: “Model_W“ in Preflight 1. Click > Enable to activate the tool. 2. Create an Underlay Fill by moving the slider to 100%. This will fill the image data with Spot1. The color used here is the one you’ve defined in your ink configuration. “Model_W” in Preflight with Underlay Fill Note: You do not need to set a mask color because the background is white. White Paper Speciality Ink Tools 19 3. Create a Choke by moving the slider to the left. Choke and Spread Slider Note: If you want the photo to have a white outline, create a spread by moving the slider to the right. Choke Spread 4. In this example we want a choke with a diffused edge. Check > Diffused Edge. Choke With Diffused Edge Check > Diffused Edge 5. When you have the desired results, Click > Submit on the Print Tab. 20 White Paper Speciality Ink Tools Workflow Example 2 - “PandaBabyMania” A Garment Graphic, Single-sided Output Before we open our image we must configure our media for spots and multiple layers for your media; one CMYK, two White layers (one for each spot). The layer configuration setting should look like this: Underlay Layer Color Layer Highlight Layer Note: Use the Print Selected Channels as your printing method for all layers. Configure the Print Order to use Spot1 first (because this is our underlay), CMYK second and Spot2 last (because this is the highlight). The print order should look like this: Print Order White Paper Speciality Ink Tools 21 In this example our image has a blue background and want to print the image on a black T-shirt. We want the image to have an underlay fill of white for the image. The image has white text and other areas of white in the design. For these areas, we want to generate a layer of white for the highlight areas as Spot2. Because we’re printing on black, we also want to use the black T-shirt color for the black areas in the image, instead of printing black ink, in which case we need to create a knockout from our image. This example involves multiple steps and tool settings. To begin, first set a mask from the background color. “PandaBabyMania” in Preflight 1. Click > Set Mask to activate Color Picker Tool, then click on the color from the preview. Set Mask Image with Applied Mask 22 White Paper Speciality Ink Tools 2. Next, Create an Underlay Fill by moving the slider to 100%. This will fill the image data with Spot1. Underlay Fill Opacity at 100% 3. Set the Media Color to black. Click > Set Media Color to activate Color Picker Tool, then click on the color from the preview. Set Media Color from Preview White Paper Speciality Ink Tools 23 4. Set the Media Handling Options to . This will knockout both the spot layer areas from the underlay and the black areas that are in the image. Full Knockout 5. For the highlight layer, change the active Spot Channel to “Spot2”. Active Spot Channel 6. Check > Highlight Of: “Spot1”. Use the slider to set the opacity. Highlight Of: Spot1 24 White Paper Speciality Ink Tools This will create a highlight layer that includes the white text and the white areas in the image. Full Knockout 7. When you have the desired results, Click > Submit on the Print Tab. These are only a few examples of how to use the Spot Layer Tool. The type of output applications you create will vary. Use this paper to help you configure your RIPQueue settings and as a general reference for the Spot Layer Tool. Thank you for taking the time to read this document. If you have any questions or concerns regarding this software feature or if you need assistance, please contact technical support at: [email protected]. White Paper Speciality Ink Tools 25 Supported Printer Types Onyx Workflow Products supports several printers on the market that have spot printing capabilities but there are only a few that have developed a spot white ink. Regardless if you’re using the Spot Layer Tools or the White as Spot workflow, you must be able to define your printer with a usable spot ink configuration for the media you are using. Here is a brief description of the different types of printers that have spot printing capabilities and an example of each type. Contact your printer manufacture to find out if your device has spot ink printing capabilities. Multi-Layer Printers These printers implement a rewind command. The printer prints a layer of ink then rewinds the material back to the origin and continues to print the next layer of ink. Using the Configure Layers options in Media Manager, you can customize which inks to include in each layer and organize your layers by defining the Print Order. Each layer is configured and printed independently of each other. A few examples of printers that fall into this category would be the Roland SC545EXW, Mimaki UJF-6050C and the Zund 215c. Staggered Head Printers These printers use staggered heads that allow one ink layer to be printed slightly before the next ink layer in one continuous pass-although staggered and without rewinding the material. These devices use two banks of print heads where one bank uses CMYK inks and the other uses spots or white ink. This allows a the first few passes of the first ink layer time to dry while simultaneously printing the next few passes of the next layer. A few examples of printers that fall into this category would be the Mimaki UJV-110 and the Mimaki JV3-160SP. 26 White Paper Speciality Ink Tools File Mode Printers These printers’ output 1 bit or 8 bit files to disk that can then be used by your print application software. These output files can either be a composite or separations, depending on device. If your printer uses a composite output file, you must configure the layer options and print order. If your printer uses separation output files, you must configure the layer options. Using your print application software you can control the actual print order. File mode printers can use both the Spot Layer Tools and the White as Spot workflow. A few examples of printers that fall into this catagory would be: the Kornit, NUR Tempo and the Durst Rho. White Paper Speciality Ink Tools 27