CMYK on Silver Ink

[castirondesignco]

Hello Folks,

Has anyone had experience printing CMYK halftones over silver/gold ink? I'm using speedball inks.

I'm beginning printing on this guy tomorrow, on three different paper colors — http://twitpic.com/2ye550

The gold and silver (printed respectively) will be printed underneath the CMYK halftones, like this — http://twitpic.com/2ye6vo

I searched the forum and found this relevant article:
http://www.screenweb.com/content/dem...creen-printing
which says the black layer needs to be less transparent, but but I wanted to see if anyone has any insight on the issue. I've been printing for years and this one just feels like it might turn out weird.

[oldbox]

I have no idea but nice design !

[fantasygoat]

The metallic inks will cause the other inks to bead if you print on top of them. Metallics should always be your last layers.

[Tenebrini]

They won't look metallic either. I did it here. (the thinnest lines in the background/kaleidoscope). Where the other ink went over it it just looks gray but the design allowed for it to sometimes sparkle where there are no other colors over the lines.

[castirondesignco]

Wow, that was fast. Hell of a community.

@oldbox - why thank you

@fantasygoat - can you elaborate on "beading"? Will it inhibit drying at the normal rate or the standard layering of colors? Hell, if it makes the ink sit even more on top of the page, that's a plus for me. For this particular design printing the metallics last isn't really an option, but I know what ya mean.

@tenebrini - being a bit more dull/darker is expected, I was more just wondering if I needed to consider any special steps, like "you're yellow won't show up if you don't mix it with a little white to make it opaque". ya know, just a weird little nugget of knowledge of the sort that you wouldn't be able to guess unless you've done it before.

[ohdanielsan]

what aspect(s) are you concerned about? the color values or the actual dot quality?

perhaps you could print a test of solid silver onto the same paper you'll be using, then burn a simple halftoned image on another screen (same mesh count as the actual screens you'll be using) and print that on top of the test silver. i know that sounds like a lot of work, and it is, but if your job is crucial enough, then it's probably better than just listening to our theories here. soooo many factors are going to be involved that i doubt any of us will really be able to fully predict your results.

[castirondesignco]

true - testing is most definitely the best way to find out. this post is purely because of my laziness. really just looking to see if there were any "rules of thumb" more than anything.

[fantasygoat]

By "beading" I mean the water-based inks will bead like when you wash your car and there are water spots all over it. It won't cover evenly or smoothly, because the metallic ink surface will be slick.

[castirondesignco]

hmmmm… maybe mixing a little white ink into it will help?

[RichieGoodtimes]

Or print a larger flake metallic so shits got something to hold onto.