Printer's Corner - Powerful Tools Make Custom Colors No Problem

PolyOne Ink Management System maintains recipes for ink mixing and matching

You may have heard of the term Spot Colors. Spot Colors is printer-speak for a custom color.  Specifically, it refers to a color or ink that has been mixed and calibrated to a color matching system such as Pantone. It is a similar process to picking out paint swatches – a color that matches is picked from a catalogue of Pantone or Spot Colors.  If a project requires us to match the print to a specific custom color, our first step is finding an equivalent Spot Color.

We use EPIC Rio inks from Wilflex™ for our color matching.  Rio inks have been designed to give peak press performance and color design by striking the perfect balance between opacity and color accuracy. Rio inks produce accurate Pantone matches.  It’s a breeze with the easy to use EPIC Rio mixing system and it’s intermixable colors. 

Joey H. one of our print operators says “The Rio Ink system makes us a lot more efficient.  We have the recipes when we need them for quick changeovers.”

From a palette of 18 basic colors, each of the Spot Colors in the Rio Ink Mixing System is mixed according to its own unique ink mixing formula. You probably have mixed yellow and blue paint to get green as a kid. Creating a Pantone/Rio matched Spot Color is similar in concept, but with an added level of precision. If color accuracy is essential for a particular asset such as a company logo, Spot Colors are the way to go.

Paired with the Rio inks system is PolyOne software that provides formulas for the entire family of Rio and Pantone approved color matches.  The software offers tools for color creation and standardization. Color chip images appear with formulations to help us visually communicate the colors required for customer projects. 

“The PolyOne software ensures accuracy in our remixes.  We know we will mix the color the same way every time giving consistent color matching every time.”  says Tim S., Shout Out Loud’s production manager.

With the most opaque color system in the EPIC line, Rio inks save us both ink and money by allowing us to get to color on press quicker, even when using fine mesh screen sizes.

The Rio ink mixing system allows us to accurately reproduce any color that customers may need for their design in a time frame that matches the fast turnaround times our customers demand.

Benefits

Colorful – vibrant colors that pop

Accurate – best in class Pantone matches

Opaque – get to color on press faster and achieve greater flexibility in mesh sizes, print strokes and direct printing

Low cure – save energy, reduce bleed defects

Creamy Inks – manual or automatic press, press ready, no need to slow down print stroke

Simple – finished ink mixing system, easy mixing, easy matching, easy printing 

Consistent – short run, long run, color to color and batch to batch consistent