White Ink is setup just like any other spot color. What’s different is how you adjust the color between the design phase and final print output.
This tutorial uses Adobe Photoshop CC 2015; however, the process is the same in older versions.
First, select a template from our website. From there, select the product and colored stock you want your final design printed on.
Make sure you are designing your artwork on the layer labeled Place Your Artwork Here and not directly on the template layers. Our templates already have the paper color simulated in the background to make it easy for you to focus on just creating great art.
Keep in mind that transparency effects (like Multiply or Screen) with either the colored stock or the white inks will not print.
Since our inks are transparent, we also print white ink as a backer behind all of your colors. However, white ink is neither perfect white nor perfectly opaque. As a result, each colored stock will impact your artwork differently. To help, we’ve created hi-res scans of all our standard colored stocks for reference. These include the complete CMYK gamut along with White-to-Transparent gradients. We recommend referencing these before finalizing your artwork.
We will print White Ink behind all the colors in your document. You only need to add White Ink to the new Spot Channel for areas where you want only white to show.
If you’ve never used Spot Channels before, they can look a little intimidating. But, don’t let that hold you back. They’re very simple, we promise.
WHAT THE HECK IS A SPOT CHANNEL? Photoshop thinks of almost everything as a grayscale images called Channels. These Channels are what you see in the Channels Panel (Window > Channels). An RGB image uses three Channels (Red, Green and Blue) plus a composite Channel — which is what you actually see and use while editing the document.
Spot Channels are used in printing to represent an additional color, like a Pantone Spot or White Ink. Spot Channels are not included in the composite Channel.
To edit your regular document, you’ll need to select the composite channel, named RGB or CMYK depending on the Code Mode of your file. To edit your Spot Channel, you’ll need to select it from the Channels panel.
Once you are done with your design:
Does your artwork look correct? If not, now’s the best time to adjust your new Spot Channel. Once you’re set on the artwork, you’ll want to change the Color of your Spot Channel.
Does your artwork look terrible? Then it’s working. When we prepare your file for print, the faux colored background is removed. This will make your white ink channel clearly visible against the default white background.
While we work our keister’s off to give your consistent results from the screen to your final print, color matching cannot be guaranteed on our colored stocks. Even the paper hues shift slightly from batch to batch.
Save your file as a PSD.
Now you’re all set! Visit our website to place an order or call us at (1-877-246-3132)
If you come up with any effects you want to test out with white ink or have any questions about how to use it, feel free to contact us. We love talking ink so we’d be more than happy to help you create the unique effect you’re looking for.