Dazzling Design Effect: MetalFX®

I first heard of MetalFX® over a year ago, from an experienced print buyer in greater Boston (thanks, Jill). She encouraged me to check out Colonial Printing in Warwick, RI (www.colonialprinting.net), partly because of this specialty. Colonial has been offering MFX® for about two years now. I recently spoke with VP Ken Menna to learn more.

What is MetalFX? It's a relatively new design effect that you can get using proprietary metallic ink technology. Printers who offer it must be licensed by the manufacturer, who's based in Europe. MFX was founded in the UK, but now they are expanding into the Americas. Once a printer is approved by the company's quality standards, they get the software and an official MFX certificate.

I have a corporate brochure for MetalFX®, sent to me by Steven Tripp, principal of Tripp Graphic Solutions. This 32-page piece is filled with photos printed using MFX. These images - all vibrant and remarkable - seem almost 3-D. (The photo of the polar bear, swimming underwater and headed straight for me, is the most fascinating. How DID they do that?)

Here's how they do that. Think of MetalFX as a 5-color tint. It's used when a designer wants to print a 5-color job using metallic effects. It allows you to make 4-C photos luminous with a metallic ink, because it creates metallic luster in photographs. Menna tells me it allows you to create 1.4 million potential spot colors. (My head spins.)

The technology has its own color gamut. It has no correlation with PMS (Pantone Matching System®) colors. There's a fan book with 300 - 400 metallic colors for designers to use when spec'ing their jobs.

"There are no smoke and mirrors," adds Menna. "It's a touch plate of metallic, and we run a very special ink." It doesn't require UV inks. It uses a base MetalFX® ink and an approved CMYK set, so that you can create metallic hues in one pass on a 5-color press. Aqueous coating is recommended to protect the final piece and maximize the effect.

Price isn't a factor, according to Menna, for even though this special ink costs slightly more than regular metallic ink, it's not enough to make a difference.

What's the added value of MetalFX? The printed effect is something quite stunning. Get your hands on the corporate brochure, or request samples from Colonial Printing (401-691-3400) or other licensed printers, and you'll see it immediately.

Designers don't need to buy special software, because they typically get it from their printer. Upload it to learn how to create a bump plate in Photoshop - this is for the metallization part. Other effects can be created in InDesign or Quark.

Designers need to plan ahead when considering MetalFX, to get the effects they have in mind. With first-timers, Colonial asks them to come up with 8 different colors for a photograph and send it in. Colonial then gives them a loose composite proof off of their Fuji FinalProof, (it can proof metallic colors), which gives them a very good idea of what they'll get off the press.

Check out www.metal-fx.com to learn more about the various visual effects you can create with this technology; there are several special ones including HoloFX® for a faux hologram and SecurityFX® when you need to protect against fraud in certain documents.

There is also a page on this site that lets you find printers licensed in MetalFX® - all over the globe.

Finally, Steven Tripp sent me an informative Power Point presentation about MetalFX - see it right here.

Thanks to Ken Menna of Colonial Printing, Steven Tripp, and print buyer Jill for the lead.

MetalFX is tres cool. Check it out.

Comments? Talk to me at mdana@bostonprintbuyers.com.

©2008 Margie Dana. All rights reserved. You're free to forward this email to friends and colleagues: please do! However, no part of this column may be reprinted without permission from the author.

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