Offset PANTONE spot color ink characteristics and applications

The PANTONE color standard certification of the United States is a unified description of colors in a digital language. It provides a convenient and fast color scheme and color standard for the packaging and printing industries and ink manufacturing industry. In the developed countries of the ink industry in the world, the color of packaging, publishing and printing inks has widely adopted the United States PANTONE unified spot color standard, which not only facilitates the user but also stabilizes the quality. The rapid development of the packaging and printing industry puts forward new requirements for the design of color, so it is particularly important to ensure the consistency and stability of the color of batches of printed products.

In order to cater for the development of the market, ink manufacturers and packaging and printing companies need to understand the basic characteristics and deployment methods of spot color inks, and should be able to apply them to meet the market's color requirements for packaging and decorating prints, so that our customers can Companies have an advantage in fierce market competition and continue to expand market share. Let us first understand the difference between PANTONE spot color ink and common ink

1.PANTONE basic color ink color characteristics

PANTONE base color is a pure primary color ink, which is formulated with a single percentage of a single pigment (or colorant) with a very high color concentration and color purity. PANTONE's 14 basic colors are no exception.

Basic color name Pigment index number Pigment content (%)
PANTONE Warm Red C PR-57:1 21.00
PANTONE Orange 021C PO-34 17.10
PANTONE Red 032C PR-11 17.60
PANTONE Blue Light C PB-61 17.00
PANTONE Blue 072C PB-1:2 17.00
PANTONE Blue Purple C PV-3 22.10
PANTONE inks use a single pigment to formulate the basic color, which has the outstanding features of pure color, vivid color, high concentration, small color difference, and high color matching precision.

2. Color characteristics of ordinary color offset inks

At present, the domestic sheet-fed offset inks produced by major ink companies are roughly divided into two categories: resin offset inks and bright-fast resin offset inks. Due to the different formula design of each manufacturer, the color density of the ink is different; because of the difference in the manufacturer's sales area and usage habits, and there is no uniform color standard, although the color is complete, the ink concentration is not uniform. In view of the above situation, PANTONE basic color ink can be used when selecting printing ink with high color requirement. At present, nearly 10 offset printing ink manufacturers in China have passed the PANTONE chartered certification. It is very convenient to purchase PANTONE basic color inks in the country. Just press the PANTONE color card's color guide to match colors, and the color of the printing ink can be guaranteed.

3.PANTONE basic color ink and ordinary color ink performance comparison

1) Dryness of ink

Offset printing inks are mainly dry fixed and oxidized conjunctiva dry two ways. Solid drying is generally referred to as initial drying, meaning that the prints do not stick to each other after the ink is transferred to the paper, and the time consumed is called the initial drying time. Drying of the oxidized conjunctiva refers to the process of chemical change of the ink film from the gel to the solid from the initial drying of the ink to the complete drying. The time consumed is called the drying time of the oxidized conjunctiva. The drying speed of these two drying methods is directly related to the formula design of the ink. Ordinary resin offset printing inks have a slower fixation and drying time than oxidized conjunctiva. They are not suitable for blending PANTONE spot color inks, and the bright fast offset inks can be adapted to PANTONE spot color inks.

2) Ink concentration

PANTONE basic color ink concentration is higher, ordinary ink requires two printing dark color on the ground, if the use of PANTONE basic color ink, not only can be completed at once, and the performance of "dark ink shallow printing" effect, not easy to stick dirty, suitable for smoke Printing of wine, cosmetics, poker and other packaging boxes. The general resin offset printing ink has a low concentration and a slow drying speed, and is not suitable for dispensing PANTONE spot color inks in field printing. The concentration of the three primary colors of the fast-curing ink basically meets the PANTONE color concentration requirement.

3) Other performance evaluation

PANTONE basic color formula design has greater flexibility, according to the different paper and post-print processing formula design, especially for the high wear resistance of the cigarette bag products, PANTONE basic color ink can also add 3% ~ 5% of fluorine-containing polymer compounds, so that the wear resistance of the ink is significantly increased without affecting the concentration of ink.

The basic color ink can also adjust the ink viscosity, fluidity, and drying properties according to the ink absorption and surface smoothness of the paper. Drying is mainly controlled by the use of organic acid salts to regulate the ink's middle and bottom drying speeds. At the same time, phenolic antioxidants can also be used to make non-skinning inks. In short, the high concentration and high purity of PANTONE's basic color ink pigments give us great flexibility in formulation design.

In addition, in the quality standards for common resin offset inks and bright fast-setting resin offset printing inks that have been formulated by the country, more consideration is given to the direct use performance of the products, and there is insufficient emphasis on the flexibility and adaptability of the redeployment of the inks. In the deployment of PANTONE light-colored ink, the main color ink is often impure, such as the use of transparent white ink dilute, but does not meet the requirements of the PANTONE standard color and lead to color cast, which is inevitable.

In summary, there are differences in the characteristics of PANTONE basic color inks and common color inks. We can make use of the characteristics of various types of inks to avoid weaknesses when we match spot color inks, and we can deploy spot color inks—PANTONE spot color inks—more scientifically and economically. Distribution points

Before mixing PANTONE spot color inks, you must understand the basic ink mix.

1. Preparation of light ink

Transparent white is a semi-transparent colloidal material with the properties of offset ink produced by mixing about 25% to 28% of translucent nano-calcium and resin oils. It has the technology of PANTONE basic color inks. Characteristics, according to the deployment of any ratio will not affect the printing performance, and the color is light and odorless, there is a good fixation drying force and post-printing gloss. Transparent white has the following characteristics:
1 high transparency, light color, suitable for multicolor overprint;
2 has good fluidity, elasticity and mixing;
3 Drying speed, high gloss, storage stability.

Many printing companies still use traditional white ink to mix light-colored ink, but the color effect is not very good, because the white ink is produced by achromatic pigments, and the content of powdery pigments is usually 60% to 70%. less. The light ink formulated with white ink has the disadvantages of large ink ratio, poor transfer performance, and easy emulsification; low gloss, poor light resistance, and easy powdering; and strong decoloration and hiding power. Therefore, it is recommended that printing companies use transparent white as far as possible when deploying light-colored inks, and it is better not to use white ink or use them in proportion to transparent white.

2. Preparation of dark ink

Dark ink refers to the relatively high concentration of the ink, the transparent white content is less, mainly made of color ink deployment. In the dark ink preparation, the general printing samples can be formulated according to the formula proportion of the PANTONE Color Matching Guide, but some special colors and technical performance requirements of the product must be adjusted. For products with high color density and requiring two printing, due to the thick ink layer, the back of the printed part is easy to be dirty, and the ink with fast fixing and drying can be used, or some amount of red dry oil can be added, and conditions can also be added to facilitate the The desiccant and anti-adhesive agent (provided by a professional ink company) for the middle layer of the dry, select a good absorption of paper, printing speed can be reduced and increased dusting. In addition, the deployment of a dark blue ink containing a higher component of blue light, should pay attention to the chemical structure of the light blue contains antioxidant groups, take the principle of the first test and then production, in order to prevent poor print drying.

3. Process requirements

The preparation of PANTONE spot color inks must consider the post-printing process. For the products requiring post-printing and water-based coating, the wax remover and wear-resistant additives should be added less when adding ink, and the anti-wear additives should be added. Can make the ink film smooth and wear-resistant, but will make the surface structure of the ink layer changes, is not conducive to water-based coating and coating. If the dryness of the red oil is excessive, the ink will be quickly dried and crystallized, resulting in poor coating and gloss. In addition, when the spot color ink is dispensed, the proofing paper provided by the printing manufacturer must be consistent with the printing paper in order to prevent the color difference from being too large. The deployment of spot-color inks should also consider the application characteristics, for large-area field printing inks, the viscosity can not be too high, high viscosity and easy to pull the paper, so that the ink film surface is not smooth. Also consider the season, the winter viscosity is lowered, and the summer is relatively higher. From the perspective of application performance of spot color inks, the accuracy of ink color is the most important. Therefore, it is best to use PANTONE basic color ink to match spot color inks. Formulas based on PANTONE basic inks are very versatile and can guarantee the ink index. . Here are two commonly used PANTONE spot color ink deployment method - PANTONE color color method

1.PANTONE color card comparison method

The PANTONE Color Matching Guide contains 1114 PANTONE spot colors, printed on glossy coated and offset paper, and fan-shaped binding, providing users with a convenient selection method for selection and comparison. All PANTONE color guides are marked with PANTONE color names below. (numbering) and blending ratio, all colors are composed of a set of 14 standard basic color inks and transparent white. When receiving the customer's standard color samples, you can directly compare with the PANTONE color card color guide, find a relatively similar color standard, and then determine the hue according to the actual color difference, find out the main cause of color difference, and then press the result of the judgment Formulated ink, convenient and practical.

2. Weighing method

When receiving the customer's standard color samples, the PANTONE color card can be used for the initial comparison to find the relative PANTONE number color code, according to its basic color, with a 1/100 precision medical balance.