Large Ink Coverage Areas

Moving from tiny traps to the opposite end of the size spectrum, you’ll discover that large color areas present some problems as well. (You’re probably starting to wonder, “Is there anything that’s easy to print?”) Most ink is translucent, not opaque, and its thickness when applied to paper is measured in ten-thousandths of an inch. Consequently, covering a large area with a single spot-color ink can be challenging. Think of painting a wall. It often takes two coats to achieve smooth color coverage. Similarly, one solution is to apply two passes of the ink (called a double hit). But this can increase the cost of the job because it involves an additional unit on the press, as well as extra ink. Depending on the ink color, the first instance of the color might be a screen tint (say, 50 percent) rather than a solid, to avoid an overly heavy final appearance.

If the job already uses a four-color process, a less expensive alternative is to create a process equivalent of the screened underlay described in the previous paragraph, then run a single pass of the spot color on top of it.

Before you take the law into your own hands and start trying to solve these problems on your own, have a conversation with your print service provider about the issues involved. Don’t over-engineer the job in an effort to help. Either seek guidance from the print service provider’s prepress department, or leave it to the professionals to handle your job appropriately for their printing conditions. While you may incur some additional cost, these special treatments pay off in a better-looking, more professional finished piece.