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Pantone Colours brighter in overprint view?

Explorer ,
Mar 23, 2021 Mar 23, 2021

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Hi all,

 

I am working on a design in Illustrator which uses Pantone Solid Coated colours, I am in CMYK colour mode as the artwork will be printed across packaging.

However when I either

  • save out as a PDF in PDF/X-4:2010
  • OR click Overprint Preview

the colours appear brighter on the document, why is this? As I assume they will not print this way but just curious as to why this occurs?

 

As when I save the PDF out in PDF/X-4:2010 but change the output colour conversion to Document CMYK - Coated FOGRA39, the colours appear as they should on the PDF.

 

Can anyone help?

 

Thanks in advance!

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Draw and design , Import and export

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correct answers 1 Correct answer

Community Expert , Mar 23, 2021 Mar 23, 2021

Overprint Preview tries to show your spot colour as accurate as possible.

Screenshot 2021-03-23 at 18.53.08.png

Normal preview shows how the spot would look when converted to CMYK.

Screenshot 2021-03-23 at 18.53.16.png

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Adobe
Community Expert ,
Mar 23, 2021 Mar 23, 2021

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When you print them,  you will use the Pantone ink. So it depends on the quality of the ink and substrate.

 

In Overprint preview, Illustrator tries to emulate that.

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Explorer ,
Mar 23, 2021 Mar 23, 2021

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Hi Monika,

 

Thanks for getting back to me, just seemed VERY bright if it is meant to be emulating a print it looked more like a RGB colour. However I have noticed it is not every Pantone colour, for example 1797 C red does not change however 375 C does change. Why is it that certain colour change and others don't?

 

Thanks!

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Community Expert ,
Mar 23, 2021 Mar 23, 2021

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Is your color management set up accordingly? That is important.

 

Illustrator just uses the Lab definitions provided by Pantone. So why does one color rendered more brightly, nobody can know but Pantone.

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Explorer ,
Mar 23, 2021 Mar 23, 2021

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Hi,

 

Yes my colour management system is below:

 

Colour Settings.png

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Community Expert ,
Mar 23, 2021 Mar 23, 2021

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I can't decide if this is practical for your workflow, because that depends on the printing processes. Coated Fogra 39 is not the best, but also not the worst choice, provided you are printing in Europe.

It shouldn't drive Pantone colors way off.

 

Is your system calibrated?

 

And then: Do you print with spot colors or are you converting them to process? If you print with spot colors, it doesn't really matter how they look on screen, because it depends on what the printer fills into their machine.

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Explorer ,
Mar 23, 2021 Mar 23, 2021

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What would you use in place of Coated Fogra? Or is this something the printer should specifiy?

 

I don't believe my system is calibrated?

 

I will be printing in Europe yes, and the colours I am using are Pantone colours across all the packaging.

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Community Expert ,
Mar 23, 2021 Mar 23, 2021

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Overprint Preview tries to show your spot colour as accurate as possible.

Screenshot 2021-03-23 at 18.53.08.png

Normal preview shows how the spot would look when converted to CMYK.

Screenshot 2021-03-23 at 18.53.16.png

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Explorer ,
Mar 23, 2021 Mar 23, 2021

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Hi Ton,

 

So when you are in CMYK colour mode the only way to truely see how the Pantone will look is to go into the Overprint Preview? However the print will look as it does in normal view as it would be printed in CMYK?

 

Thanks for the response

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Community Expert ,
Mar 23, 2021 Mar 23, 2021

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Pantone colors are special mixes of special inks to achieve colors that are not possible with normal CMYK inks and Overprint Preview simulates those inks on your screen.

When printed on a printing press they are added to the 4 process colors as a special ink.

When printing on a color printer they are simulated with the inks in the color printer.

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Explorer ,
Mar 23, 2021 Mar 23, 2021

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Hi Ton, thanks for that.

 

So just to clarify which colour would be printed, the colour you see on screen, or the colour you see in overprint preview mode?

 

Thanks again

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Community Expert ,
Mar 23, 2021 Mar 23, 2021

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If you pay to print with the additional Pantone ink, it will look more like the Overprint preview.

If you print with just 4 colours and convert the Pantone to CMYK, it will look more like the normal preview.

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