Design for print has always struck me as a creatively suffocating phrase, but if you fail to prepare your images properly for a special print process, there's little chance of achieving a quality finish.
One such process that requires you to think as a designer and artworker well before tackling the illustration or photography is MetalFX.
MetalFX inks act as a substrate printed inline before the transparent CMYK inks. The really clever thing is that you can define this substrate using a spot channel from any image while retaining gradients and tonal values. This offers more colour, subtlety and control when using metallic ink to elevate your print work. To obtain a copy of ImagineFX issue 32 and see the finished effect, see www.myfavouritemagazines.co.uk.
Click here to download the tutorial for free
