Beginner Question

[manchu]

Please just answer my question instead of having a field day over how dumb this question is:

I need to have a project printed that includes the color "Cool Gray x" (a Pantone color?). This is a grayscale project, but cool gray doesn't actually seem to be grayscale. In my limited knowledge I seemed to think that Grayscale referred to R=G=B or c=m=y=whatever. Cool gray according to these criteria are not grayscale.

This questions probably reveals that I don't really understand Pantone colors and how print companies use them. If I send a project to a print company that uses "cool gray" or "warm gray" Pantone colors would they charge for grayscale or for color?

[Kool]

Cool gray and warm gray are spot colors. So yes they would be charged as individual colors. Grayscale is various tints of black.

[SpugNothuson]

You are indeed getting a little mixed up.

What you're after is a single colour document that is printed in black. Therefore a greyscale job.

Cool Grey "x" is a pantone colour. This colour if printed as a single colour job would have the printer reaching for the tin of ink "Cool Grey x".

If the printer was printing your job out of full colour (C,M,Y,K) you would find that the cool grey did indeed have an element of Cyan in it (this is what makes it cool).

To design your single colour job only use the K channel in the programme that you're using. Also make sure that any images coming out of PhotoShop are in the Greyscale colour space.

[CkretAjint]

Kool is correct.

[MD]

Am I safe to assume that the entire project will be printed in cool gray? Then it will be a one color job. An easy way to explain the pantone matching system is to think of them like cans of paint. If you want to print red ink - you put red ink on the press.

Since you referring to the document as a greyscale document are you designing the whole thing in photoshop?

[manchu]

Ok, thanks for the replies. I'm still trying to understand some concepts here. Pantone colors are like cans of paint. That's good. Here is a hypothetical project that will help you smart people teach me more:

I'm working on a proect in InDesign. The file is linked to a photo in .psd format that is in the grayscale color space. The file also includes some other elements that use two solid spot colors (cool gray 2 and 4 for example). Now I export this puppy as a pdf and send it to a print company. How many cans of paint do they need to use to print it?

[manchu]

Now if I sent this same pdf to an in-house printer that tracks color vs grayscale prints, I understand that this file would be counted as color because of the cool gray colors being used.

[manchu]

To make sure that it was counted as a grayscale print, I would have to modify the InDesign file to use true grayscale colors instead of the cool gray spot colors.

[CkretAjint]

Now if I sent this same pdf to an in-house printer that tracks color vs grayscale prints, I understand that this file would be counted as color because of the cool gray colors being used.

Correct. Unless the entire file was variations of Cool Gray and the printer counted the file entirely with 1 spot color the same as a K ink run.

[manchu]

Correct. Unless the entire file was variations of Cool Gray and the printer counted the file entirely with 1 spot color the same as a K ink run.

Unfortunately one color is counted the same as full color.

[budafist]

Ok, thanks for the replies. I'm still trying to understand some concepts here. Pantone colors are like cans of paint. That's good. Here is a hypothetical project that will help you smart people teach me more:

I'm working on a proect in InDesign. The file is linked to a photo in .psd format that is in the grayscale color space. The file also includes some other elements that use two solid spot colors (cool gray 2 and 4 for example). Now I export this puppy as a pdf and send it to a print company. How many cans of paint do they need to use to print it?

That would be 3 cans of paint and therefore 3 plates for what would look almost like a greyscale job. Cool grey 2, Cool grey 4 and Black for your photo.

It is sometimes done, but you really have to think about whether the difference in 3 plates is worth the extra expense. Sometimes budget will say that you can do the job with 1 plate (black or a dark grey spot).