I designed something in RGB about a year ago. I know that the gamut for CMYK is more narrow and that once printed some of the richness comes back. However, the switch in modes from RGB to CMYK is quite drastic.
Is there a better way to convert the colors than just switching modes?
BTW, the purple will be foil.
The Company says that they have colored foil that they match to the color. There is no ink on the foil as it has been tinted and they just match it. The sample of a foil card that i have looks like they dycut it somehow and glue it to the card. They also tell me that the foil parts can not be uv coated or overlayed in any way.
I am not familiar with drawdowns. Can you school me a bit?
I hate that i choose purple for this cause i am hearing it is the most difficult cmyk color.
I have done jobs like this before.
For your particular job, you would create a single layered GS file.
Your Layer contains only the part of your image which will be printed in ink.
Then create a Spot Color Channel.
For on-screen viewing purposes ONLY, choose a purple which is visually close to your chosen available Foil-color; and set Solidity to 100%.
Paste a copy of the design which is to be foil-stamped into the Spot Color Channel and remove any Layer which might contain that design. The design should be a 100% solid black- shape on a white background.
Save As a Photoshop PDF (with "Preserve Photoshop Editing Capabilities" turned OFF).
Choose Press Quality and "No Color Conversion".
Check the Inks etc. in Acrobat Pro and then send the PDF to your Printing Company.
They will use the Spot Ink plate to make a diecut for stamping with the foil (which can be any color that you choose from their sample book).
It is correct that the foil parts can not be uv coated or overlayed in any way.
If you want the ink-layer to be varnished or aqueous-coated, specify that and have it done in-line on the press BEFORE the Foil-stamping process is done.
Hope that this helps
I was going to remove the bevel on the text an change the font to white. ( the new u & services part )
All of the text outside of that & the body would be UV coated. Another gs file for that.
The rest would be silk/velvet screen paper.
When you did that job do you remember them having several tone of the same shade?
I was hoping that the foil would come out as vivid as the rgb version.... or close. I know it will stand out becuase foil catches light but i am hoping it was richer in color.
Forget your Photoshop Effects Bevel or any sort of texturing.
The bevel won't work because Foil is just solid metalized plastic sheeting — a single color with no shading possible — (unless you tried to print another layer of ink over the foil which I think would be totally impossible!).
Heavy embossing in addition to foil-stamping could be used to provide a 3-D scuptured bevelled finish — but at considerable extra cost.
Ask your printer to send you samples of the foils which are available to him.
You may find that both matte and glossy versions are available in a few colours and there may be darker and lighter hues for a few of them too. but the range is fairly limited.
But if the text is now going to be white after all, why would you even go to the considerable extra expense of using foil-stamping in the first place?
You could use a pattern gloss varnish over just the type instead.
UV-coating is another issue altogether and your job will almost certainly have to be sent to a different specialist company for that part of the work. More expense!
The unit-cost per card could become astronomical with the amount of complexity that you are adding.
Seriously, work out your Specs. for stock, inks, finishing processes and get several quotes because this job is not going to be cheap!
Or just stick with the one-color ink plus glossy Foil as you originally intended — and print on a top quality heavy stock. The cards will be fine and the price will be reasonable.
I ran a Google search for "Metallized foil for stamping & embossing" and found this example of available colours:
North America
Europe, Middle East and Africa
Asia Pacific