Paper swatch in Illustrator - no ink required

[Benjamin]

I have a reversed out section of white text on a dark background in Illustrator. When it prints I want the text area to receive no ink. In InDesign there is a swatch called 'Paper' which I think ensures this. So I would set the fill of the text to use that swatch. However, in Illustrator there is no such swatch. If I fill the text with white (ie where CMY and K are all 0%) will this give the same thing? Or will it actually print out some white ink?

[rickself]

You are safe. We rarely use white ink in our shop! (except maybe as an undercoat to a metallic on a dark stock...like a double bump)

[Benjamin]

Thanks - so is that a standard feature of CMYK printing, that all at 0% will just leave the paper untouched? So even if I am printing on yellow card, any object that is filled in white will actually appear yellow? (Just trying to make double-sure) Thanks.

[Silence04]

yeah, in illustrator white means clear/no ink.

[urstwile]

Also known as knockout.

[Ghastly]

If I fill the text with white (ie where CMY and K are all 0%) will this give the same thing? Or will it actually print out some white ink?

which part of C M Y or K is white :confused: (rhetorical question)

[urstwile]

Benjamin,

Rarely are you ever filling a "white" section of an illustration or image with white ink. What you are basically doing is excluding that area from being filled with any ink at all.

InDesign somewhat complicated that perception, at the same time as they were trying to clear it up, by designating what most of us referred to as white (i.e. knockout, also i.e. NO INK) as Paper. Unfortunately, Illustrator and Photoshop didn't follow suit in the interface, so no doubt, thus your confusion.

In InDesign, Paper is the same as white. That is, no ink will be applied to anything that is filled with that color.

In most software, if you are, for example going to a silkscreen or decal process, where you may need to have white as an ink, you have to fake the white ink by defining a color as an actual printing ink. Many (or at least I, and I'm a large person, so I think I could define myself as many) do this by making a fake color, maybe calling it Opaque White, and define it with a small dot in CMYK to fake an opaque white color. Defining that color as Opaque with Spot as the specification will generate a separate plate that the silkscreener or decal maker (or whoever) can use to generate the plate to use for the actual white ink areas of the image.

In your case, it sounds like you're fine, and you're getting boggled up by the terminology used by the software.

So in general, 0% of every CMYK color will mean "No Ink".

[PrintDriver]

The thing you have to remember with all the default colors ESPECIALLY the [Paper] one in InDesign is that you cannot edit them.

There will come a time when you don't want everything you made Paper to be white.

This is even more true for the [Black] option in Indesign. You are even more likely to come across a time when you don't want to use 100%k but you can't globally change this selection or alter it by deletion. PITA!!!

I tell designers (the ones who call to ask) to create a white and a black swatch in InD so it can be edited.

As for 0% of anything being white...don't assume. There used to be a rip error that made some things print out at 100% of the color selected. It had to do with strokes with a line weight but spec'd as 0% of a PMS color. The rip saw the line weight and ignored the 0%. Also a PITA.

[urstwile]

Excellent idea PD. Like for those times when you want black to be four-color black instead of just 100% K. Or white needs to be an ink instead of a knockout. I'm gonna remember that suggestion for sure.

[PrintDriver]

I was thinking more along the lines of the time my client spec'd [paper] thinking the substrate was a parchment color instead of white. He was very sad when I told him everything he made [paper] had to have a beige color applied to it cuz in large format (almost) all substrates are um...white. You want a background color youse gots to apply it. Doh.

[urstwile]

Yeah, so white needed to be a color kind of, right? Thought that's what I said, but I may have been channeling another language at the moment. :p

[PrintDriver]

Ah, I thought you were talking about the mysterious white ink.
:D

[urstwile]

Nope, was more thinking silkscreen actually or decal work. Where there is sometimes a need for white to be an ink. But the large format thing makes sense too. We do that when we want to get a parchment look on our super bright white Epson paper.

[PrintDriver]

Riight. Don't forget UV flatbed process too. They have a white ink too.

[urstwile]

Now that we're talking the same language again.... :)