Reading Between the Hues

According to 48 percent of respondents, color matching is the biggest challenge encountered when working with specialty inks. Jim Wittig, vice president/technical director at Rad-Cure Corp., believes color matching with specialty inks is "pushing the limits of flexo heads." He believes in order to get the full effect of everything these inks have to offer, a screen process is the way to go. Approximately 70 percent of respondents currently use specialty ink on screen presses or screen printing units. Wittig adds these inks are most difficult to use with digital presses: "Most specialties are too grainy for a digital process; there is also a very limited color selection available right now." Many printers agree with this, as specialty ink usage on digital presses trailed other print processes at 24 percent.