Colours & Inks

FAQ's

Q. Is it possible to 4-colour process print onto vinyl and other materials?

A. Yes, it is possible to have process printing on vinyl and other materials, including harder substrates like foamex board.

Q. What are the two types of inks we use?

A. UV (Ultraviolet) and Solvent.

Q. What are the major differences in UV and Conventional Inks?

A. Conventional inks can dry with heat or air-dry, UV inks will only dry when exposed to ultraviolet light. Conventional inks are generally more opaque than UV inks.

Q. Which ink is more efficient in production and why?

A. UV inks are more efficient. The main reason is UV inks do not dry in the screens. This allows the press operator to continue running without stopping to clean ink out of screens.

Q. What type of ink is used for larger production runs?

A. UV.

Q. Can you use conventional inks for large production runs?

A. Yes, but this requires a special quote and may be cost prohibitive due to slow production time

Q. What type of ink is used for screen-printing, screen-tints or halftones?

A. Only UV inks are used. Because the ink does not dry in the screen, the printing is more consistent and production is more efficient.

Q. What is a screen tint or halftone?

A. It is a way of creating many shades of colour while printing one ink colour. This is achieved by breaking down artwork into dots varying in size. The term “screen tint” is generally used in reference to solid and graduated percentages of colour and the word “halftone” is generally used in reference to greyscale images such as photographs.

Q. For screen-printing what screen percentages do you recommend for solid tints and gradients?

A. We recommend solid tints to fall between 15% and 85%. We recommend gradients to fall between 5% and 95%.

Q. Why does Ashfield SP recommend against screen-printing large panels of screen tints?

A. In the process of screen-printing, specs and flaws in printing large panels are easily visible. In some cases we recommend printing an additional lighter shade of the same colour as a solid.

Q. What line screen does Ashfield SP use for offset/litho printed products?

A. 150 dpi.

Q. What line screen does Ashfield SP use for screen-printing?

A. Our standard line screen is 65 lpi (lines per inch). For prints that have small areas of halftones with fine detail, we may choose to go to a higher line screen in order to hold detail.