Elizabeth wrote:
We recently printed a piece that used a metallic silver spot on uncoated stock (specifically, PMS 877U). When building the mechanical, we realized there is no Metallic Uncoated Pantone library accessible via the swatches palette in InDesign. Why is this?
While InDesign (CS2 or CS3) does ship with a whole mess o’ libraries, including Pantone Metallic Coated, it does not come with metallic uncoated. But you know what? You can always just make your own. This is an important aspect of spot colors: You can always build your own, and as long as you give it the right name, it’ll work.
What’s the “right name”? Well, if you’re just speccing colors in InDesign, then you can call it anything you want. For example, you can call it “My happy metallic color” and when you send it to your printer, just tell them that you want that particular plate printed with PMS 877U. Because spot color inks are mixed by the printer, it really doesn’t matter what you call it, as long as you and your printer are on the same page.
If you’re using that color in other apps (such as Illustrator or Photoshop), then the “right name” is — again — whatever you want it to be, as long as you’re using exactly the same name in all your programs. If you’ve used “PMS 877U” in Illustrator, then you’d better use that same name in InDesign.
How to make the color in InDesign? In the Swatches panel flyout menu, choose New Color Swatch. Set the Color Type pop-up menu to “Spot”. In your case, I would choose Pantone Metallic Coated from the Color Mode pop-up menu, then choose 877 from the list of colors.
As you know, the problem here is that the color name shows up as 877C instead of 877U. That’s not a big deal, but if you want it to be “U”, you can now change the Color Mode pop-up menu to RGB or Lab. This allows you to change the name of the swatch. Just change “C” to “U” and click OK.
Color swatch libraries are just for convenience, like guides. If you don’t have the one you need, don’t panic. Just work around it. ;)
This article was last modified on December 18, 2021
This article was first published on November 28, 2007
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Sorry. I obviously didn’t get the PMS joke before. I get it now. Thanks for the healthy dose of embarrassment.
Thank you, Mordy: I hadn’t realized that 877 always denoted a metallic ink, regardless of what library it’s pulled from. I also get that now.
Thank you to everyone for your help and clarification.
Haven’t seen anyone mention border tape.
I’d just like to say that we use the term “mechanical” all the time here…old habits die hard, but it makes sense like Elizabeth says to differentiate it from all the copy/layouts from before. Well, gotta go…someone needs a rubylith!
Great point, Mordy! If you look in the Pantone Solid Uncoated library, you can find 877 U there.
You’ll find metallic colors in the regular Pantone Solid Coated and Uncoated libraries. You don’t need to load the metallic library specifically at all.
Pantone specifically lists which libraries Adobe should include with each version. Off the top of my head, I can’t remember why there was no metallic uncoated. It may be simply because metallic inks are usually used on coated stocks. I’d have to search my memory banks for sure on that one…
No Klaus, don’t do it…
Hope you’re not a footie fan, Rosenborg got a trashing tonight!!!
Well, Miss Lass, since you “kinda like” that — today — we don’t have to go into the mysterious “multiple meanings” of PMS.
(And yes, dear long-suffering site owners, real soon I shall post a Really Serious Posting.)
Yes, I too put files I no longer use away, I put in a folder called “Recycle Bin” or if I’m on the Mac, it goes in the “Trash” folder. One file all – all of the time.
Klaus – I know you were joking earlier.
Ooo… I kinda like that. :)
Elizabeth Lass said: “Yes, we use the term ‘mechanical’ to specifically differentiate our final press-ready files from the many versions of definitely-not-press-ready design files for a project.”
OK. So you do. It seems.
But here in Norway we refer to the “definitely-not-press-ready design files” as the “organics” . . . ;-)
Scott, it’s true that the metallic-ness is not as pronounced on uncoated stock, but it’s not entirely lost. The Uncoated chip book does contain chips for uncoated metallic inks (at the very back). We’ve achieved good results on uncoated stock.
Hah hah, you all are funny. :) Yes, we use the term “mechanical” to specifically differentiate our final press-ready files from the many versions of definitely-not-press-ready design files for a project. I don’t know what a stat-camera is—I started using InDesign in college—but I’m pretty sure the term “mechanical” is still used…
Thanks, David, for the response. We handled it just as you described in Par.’s 4 and 5, except that we changed it to “CMYK” and then edited the name. Same diff. I was more curious as to why that library isn’t included. Maybe the formulations for coated and uncoated metallic inks are actually the same, so as far as the printer’s concerned it’s the same ink? At any rate, thanks!!
Oh, and “PMS” fits more nicely in my slug. Isn’t it an abbreviation for “Pantone”? What are these “multiple meanings”?
These are all very good points on coated and uncoated swatches. But on a bit of a side note, I would say that 877U doesn’t exist because the metallic ink loses its metallic properties on uncoated stock so it’s not really meant to be printed unless the stock is coated. I’m sure that would be Pantone’s take…
Eugene: it was slightly tongue-in-cheek.
David, the term may well be *used* — for people use a lot of inappropriate language which we might agree they ought not use! My little point was simply if “mechanical” now *denotes* “press-ready digital files” it sure is an oddball term, compared to what it used to denote, when the “word in itself” made some sense — since mechanical devices like rulers and compasses and knives and stat-cameras were involved. “Mechanical digital files” is rather oxymoronic. But enough word-quibbling, bring on the next podcast — with plenty of free tips! :-)
Great point about the ink manager, Anne-Marie! (More on that here.)
Of course, there is also the “pasteboard” in InDesign. Paste? Wax? Rubber cement? I have my waxer sitting here on my desk next to the jeweled T-square prize from the Creative Smackdown gameshow at the recent Creative Suite conference. No, I didn’t win. Sandee gave me one that was left over!)
“If you?ve used ?PMS 877U? in Illustrator, then you?d better use that same name in InDesign.”
Or, you could alias InDesign’s “PMS 877” (or whatever you name it) to the imported “PMS 877U” swatch via the Ink Manager; or vice versa. (Which I’m sure David knows but I wanted to get that in here for lurkers.)
Another antiquated term I hear designers and prepress use all the time is “camera ready” … ;-)
While it’s true that PMS has been deprecated, it’s still widely used by graphics professionals, who don’t seem phased by using a term with multiple meanings.
As for “mechanical,” I disagree, Klaus. This term is still very widely used (at least in north america) for the final press-ready artwork, whether analog or digital. For example, see Triple Triangle’s Mechanical and Color Spec Cubed product.
As long as we’re referring to quaint old terms, I’d add PMS to that list. For what I think is a very obvious reason Pantone dropped that designation years ago. :)
But Klaus, Elizabeth also wrote: “… no Metallic Uncoated Pantone library accessible via the swatches palette in InDesign” [Emphasis Added]
Do you think Elizabeth is pasting things onto her monitor or something?
In looking for a physical library that contains the uncoated metallic swatches for InDesign I came across this, which I found interesting in creating your own set of swatches.
https://www.carijansen.com/tips/022/
Spot-on, David!
But Elizabeth wrote: “When building the mechanical . . . ”
That’s surely an old, quaint term to use, from the bygone paste-up, stat-camera era — in our all-digital days?! Can it now mean anything else than an InDesign/Quark/Pagemaker/Framemaker file? (Though I guess perhaps she could live in Zimbabwe or Botswana, where paste-up mechanicals is the latest high-tech in print production.)