This is a new addition to the PSDTUTS PLUS section. Learn all about how to design and prepare your Photoshop files for printing with specialty inks and UV gloss varnishes from an expert in the field. Mark takes you through the details you need to know in order to create professional results. Learn more at the jump!
New Exclusive PLUS Tutorial on Creating Photoshop Files for Printing Special Inks
This new PLUS Tutorial is titled "Create Vibrant Illustrations Using Special Inks," by Mark Mayers. He is a freelance illustrator and designer based in Cornwall, UK. He has worked for leading publishers worldwide and now PSDTUTS.
Offset printing is composed of four spot colors: Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Key (black) commonly referred to as CMYK. Some colors are impossible to reproduce with CMYK alone, such as metallics and fluorescents, other colors such as vivid oranges and greens are problematic. Nowadays many commercial printers have five or six color presses, so it’s not uncommon for designers to integrate one, or even two extra spot colors. It’s also important that a clients’ brand color remains consistent, so spot colors are often used because their inks adhere to exact formulas, giving accurate results every time.
Take a look at your local newsstand and you’ll see many magazines that have been printed with additional inks or special print finishes. Adding spot colors to an InDesign or Illustrator document is a relatively simple task – but this tutorial guides you through the process of integrating two fluorescent inks as well as a UV gloss varnish in Photoshop. While this is a complex task, you’ll learn step by step how to accomplish this.
Members can Log in and Download! Otherwise, Join Now! A preview of the final image is below. You can view the large version here.
This is a Complex and Detailed Tutorial
Learn all about how to design and prepare your Photoshop files for printing with specialty inks and UV gloss varnishes from an expert in the field. Mark takes you through the details you need to know in order to create professional results and work with your printer. Below is an example from this tutorial of the knocked out areas and the files set up for printing. Below that is a a video that gives an example of what the reflection on the varnish would look like if printed. It’s created with Esko Visualizer, which is a tool to create these type of demos.
Members can Log in and Download! Otherwise, Join Now!
PSDTUTS Plus Membership
As you know, we run a premium membership system here called PSDTUTS Plus that costs $9 a month (or $22 for 3 months!) which gives members access to the PSD files for tutorials as well as periodic extra tutorials, like this one! If you’re a member you can log in and download the tutorial. If you’re not a member, you can of course join today!
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By Mark Mayers
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This seems really cool, but too bad I don’t have a plus membership
nice! wish i had a membership
Cool stuff!
Honestly? Really?
I could do this in five minutes, and it’s a plus tutorial? It shouldn’t even be on this site.
Argh, so much new stuff for Plus! It’s so tempting… damn my college budget!
wow its really good.
I wish that monthy membership was 5$ per month.
i could have afford that much.But sad thing its 9$.
awww gotta have a membership
Nice Illustration.
Thanks, gonna try it out later
cool art.
Looks very nice!
Hu-uge download though!
Good stuff!
OMG, i guess i’ll take a Plus membership ^^
Yessssssssssssss…!!!
I like this awesome tutorials on ink management.
Damn !! So i guess….i need Plus membership !!
Good stuff anyway….thanks Mark.
useless this video
amazing tutorial i would say one of the best tut i ever seen here:P
http://omerercan82.deviantart.com/
this is really tempting. but i’m not gonna be able to view it XD
nice tutorial.
http://www.3dand2dmag.wordpress.com
this looks really cool! now only if i had a plus-membership…
I find it disappointing that my previous comment got deleted because of its critical nature. I hope that the admin will rethink that decision this time.
This is not, in my opinion, the sort of tutorial that should be posted on this website. The heyday of this site’s tutorials has long past, and now, the excellent ones that used to be posted all the time are rare to find.
This tutorial, frankly, is a waste. People don’t need an artist to tell them how to download and use a brush. People don’t need to be told how to copy and paste. People don’t need to be told how to burn the photo in that way. People don’t need to be told how to make a circle or a curvy line in Illustrator.
This tutorial is an eclectic collection of the simplest techniques with a good outcome; but by no stretch anything NEAR remarkable.
I’m disappointed.
In response, I have created my OWN version of this photo, without use of the TUT; I don’t even have a membership. It’s essentially the same, and I don’t use any special techniques whatsoever, in accordance with what I’m sure the ACTUAL tutorial entails. I’m not using the computer with that file on it at the moment, so providing my comment doesn’t get deleted again, I shall post it tomorrow. Oh, and as a side note, it only took me about 30 minutes.
Thank you,
~Toby Shorin
This is a really great tutorial. Thank you very much! We have been looking for something along these lines.
Best,
Lautus Design
This is sooo awesome
getting the membership to this site has been the best gift ever.
I think you have won be over. I need to get a plus membership.
Looks brilliant.
most clients don´t want to spend the ekstra money for PMS colors. that why many have a CMYK logo also when you print brochures and stuff.
do you know how much one extra plate cost, like the CMYK plate it already expensive, and then add 2 extra plates.
looks nice, but it is hard to find those clients wanting to spend extra money, espasally nowadays when the economy is going down the drain!
@Toby Shorin:
With all respect, without you having a Plus membership to view the complete tutorial, how can you make those sweeping statements?
Read the top intro and you’ll see the tutorial demonstrates how to add extra Pantone inks (two fluorescent ‘touch plates’). It also shows how these colours can be overprinted with CMYK inks to boost selective areas.
The tutorial also shows how to knock out CMYK inks to reveal the pure fluorescents. It also shows how to ‘trap’ the extra inks to compensate for any slight movement on press. OK you maybe a web designer who cares nothing about preparing these type of files for print, but there’s plenty of people out there who would like to know how it’s done and it’s a subject that’s not, to my knowledge been covered in a tutorial to this extent, in other words, it’s more than a pretty picture. You’re judging the image, not the techniques used!
@geir b nystad:
OK, point taken, but the tutorial does mention cheaper ways this could be done, such as using one or two spot colours (on a two-colour press). This tutorial uses six colours and a varnish, but only to demonstrate what is possible – you can ‘water’ it down to suit a smaller budget.
The cost of an extra plate is only £16 – £25 and £25 – £30 for a make-ready. Also depending on your relationship with your printer he may not charge you at all. I have a couple of clients who’s logo I always print as a spot (one is a bright orange). Also bigger clients use spot colours extensively, especially in packaging design.
great choice of photo but the background brushes remind me of 2003
This is an amazing tutorial!
@Mark Mayers
I guess your right, some clients don´t care, i think i have those client that do care, sucks because it look beautiful and i would love to do something like this.
also here in Norway i think an extra plate cost around 1000 kr = 80-90 pounds. but i am not 100% sure.
too bad Plus costs more than let’s say .. a subscription to computer arts for example .. :/
I just bought the membership. I was going to start and there it is! Now I have to buy the bloody picture from iStockphoto or soend an hour trying to find a decent one for free!
WTF? At least provide the pictures needed in order to complete the tutorial, what is this?