Using Neon/Fluor inks in PrintFactory

Overview of Neon/Fluorescent Ink Handling

By default, PrintFactory’s gamut builder in VISU primarily utilizes Cyan, Magenta, and Yellow ink channels, guided by standard naming conventions. Neon Yellow/Magenta or other fluorescent inks are not typically included in the gamut for RGB or CMYK transformations unless specified as spot colors. However, there are innovative ways to force the use of Neon/Fluorescent inks, which are outlined below.

Ink Settings in Driver Configuration

In the PMM-building wizard the "Ink Settings" at the bottom of each driver settings page allow for flexible configuration of ink usage:

Normal: Extends the gamut using up to 8 additional channels for gamut building (maximum 16 channels, including Specials, Lights/Mediums, and Spots).

Light or Medium: Mixes with Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, or Black channels of the same name, transitioning from light to dark automatically through pre-sets.

Spot: Treated as a "pure" channel, Spot inks can be linearized or clipped but are excluded from the gamut-building process. These inks can be mapped automatically if named consistently with input file spot definitions.

Special: Channels such as White (with clip/linearization control), Gloss, Varnish, Silver, or Primer are treated as Special and excluded from gamut building.

Disable: Prevents the channel from carrying data, although a blank “channel plate” is still output.

Note: Assigning identical names to two primary channels (e.g., two Cyan channels) requires one to be designated as Light or Medium. Adding an "&" symbol (e.g., Cyan&) merges up to four channels into one.

Neon/Fluorescent Ink Configuration

To effectively use Neon or Fluorescent inks for gamut extension, consider the following configurations:

Replace Primary Yellow with Neon Yellow:

Disable the Primary Yellow channel, rename the Neon Yellow channel as "Yellow," and assign a new name (e.g., "FlouroY" or "Ny") to the original Primary Yellow. This configuration uses Neon Yellow as the primary ink.

Swap Neon and Primary Channel Names:

Rename Neon Yellow and Neon Pink as "Yellow" and "Magenta," respectively, and assign new names to the original primary channels. This approach uses Neon/Fluorescent channels as the primary gamut-building inks, same as above version.

Combine Neon/Fluorescent with Primary Inks:

Assign the same name to both the Neon/Fluorescent and corresponding primary channels (e.g., both named "Magenta"), but configure the primary channel as "Light" or "Medium." The Neon/Fluorescent ink will act as the “dark” ink, introduced at higher densities in the linearization curve. This is recommended if you want to use a mix of neon and normal inks.

Spectrophotometer Recommendations

For accurate measurements, Neon/Fluorescent inks require an M1 fi lter setting on the spectrophotometer. We recommend using Barbieri devices, which seamlessly handle Neon/Fluorescent measurements. Handheld devices like X-Rite may need additional calibration to switch between scan and patch modes without data loss.

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