Original Color Printing Research Project (2)

The second meeting of the original color printing research project was held on July 26th. The attendees included representatives of the group, Zhong Jinrong, Liu Fucheng, Feng Xiaoyu and Zhao Decai. Please contact Mr. Lin Yongsheng, Asia Pacific Sales Director of Pantone Company to explain the development and application of Hexachrome. Pantone also sponsored four HexWare color separations and Solid in hexachrome colorguide. The birth company will sponsor Hexachrome's ink.

Pantone's Mr. Lin said that Hexachrome has been on the market for many years. There are about one hundred companies in the world applying this technology, but why not be as popular as four-color? The main reason for mastering this technology is that it takes a long time, and not all pictures use this technology properly. Moreover, many companies have less knowledge of the technology and disclose its methods. This technology is used as a competitive tool.

At present, Hexachrome is most used in the United States, followed by Europe, and in Asia, Japan has just started. There are inter-plants in Osaka to make Warner Studio Projects and send people to the United States for training. Pantone has a special training class in the United States for a period of four days. Mr. Lin said that if the show is of interest, they can also study groups to study in the United States. They are willing to make arrangements.

Hexachrome technology is the most difficult to master with color separation and proofing technology, and there are few tools to apply. Before Pantone had a set of software called HexWarench. Now updated to HexWare, this software is divided into two parts. HexImage and HexVector, HexImage is the Plug-in tool of PhotoShop. It is mainly used to convert the image of RGB or Lab color space into Hexachrome's six-color image. HexVector is a plug-in for Adobe Illustrator that deals with Hexachrome colors in the graphics section. For the drafting, you can use traditional ink to print. However, using Hexachrome standard ink, the cost is higher. Another way is to use digital writing. The HiFiJet produced by Roland is a six-color inkjet printer that can be used with Pantone Hexachrome standard inks. It is more cost-effective to use HiFiJet for proofing.

The author borrowed a book named Pantone Guide to Yu Youren Company. Communicating with COLOR. This book is a designer about how to use Pantone colors in different designs. So there are many Pantone spot colors in it, but the general four-color printing can only simulate about 50% of Pantone spot colors. The printed effect will certainly be much worse, so this book uses Hexachrome to print. Regarding the printing and publication of this book, the author took the opportunity to ask Mr. Lin of Pantone. Whether their company is directly involved or not, he said that Pantone is not the publisher of this book, but only to help ensure that the Pantone coloration they print is accurate.

The author also asked if the colors printed in some publications had Pantone numbering issues. Mr. Lin’s response to Pantone’s standards is for people’s use. Basically, Pantone charges no fees if its publications are not based on color samples.

In order to experiment with the effects of Hexachrome, we use the cover of this issue - Book Fair. We borrowed the above-mentioned Pantone book, opened one of the pages in the book, and the photographer used the magic lantern effect to render the atmosphere. Using digital cameras to shoot good images in PhotoShop, the color is very beautiful. When this type of color is converted into four colors, it will definitely be overwhelming, just to test the color performance of Hexachrome. After color separation through HexImage, open the cover artwork in Adobe Illustrator software, place a well-distributed book image, and draw a set of squares on the top of the book, fill in the Pantone spot color, this time we refer to the Solid In Hexachrome's color discrimination, six colors of Hexachrome are used to simulate Pantone's commonly used spot colors. Readers can take a closer look at the four pages printed in the inner pages and compare them with the cover. Look at the power of Hexachrome this guy! The author collected the pen and shared it with you again next time.