DOCdata UK - Tricks & Tips - Creative White Bases

This tutorial will show how you can use white ink as an effect with your DVD or CD onbody artwork.

You will require Adobe Photoshop 5 (or higher) and a desktop publishing application. We have used QuarkXPress 6 for this example.

Please note that DOCdata UK provides this tutorial for information only and cannot offer technical support on it, or any application mentioned. No guarantee is made as to its accuracy or suitability for any purpose. Images shown are for illustrative purposes only.

Why use a white base?

There are several reasons why you might use a white base:

-	Because a DVD or CD is silver, printing a halftone onto it will allow the disc's reflective surface to show through. Although this can be used to good effect, many designers prefer the disc's print to match the print on the booklet or inlay.

-	Some Pantone colours will appear metallic when printed onto a DVD or CD without a white base.

-	There may be a lack of contrast between some colours and the silver of a DVD or CD. For example, the contrast between Pantone Warm Red and the disc surface is quite poor.

-	Printing a colour across both the metallic and transparent areas of a CD can produce a variation in colour without a white base.

-	To give emphasis to a particular image (look at the astronaut in the examples- one has a white base, the other does not). It is this effect which this guide will deal with.

Cutting out the image

We start by creating a clipping path around the portion of the image which we wish to cutout.

Please refer to your Adobe Photoshop user manual for instructions regarding the creation of clipping paths.

Adding bleed

Once the clipping path is complete, use the "Load path as a selection" button to select the area.

We require the white base about 1mm smaller than the rest of the image. Use the "Contract" option to do this. On a 300 dpi image, contract the selection by 6 pixels.

Adding the white ink

With the selection still loaded, go to the Channels palette and select "New spot channel" from the flyout menu.

Click the the coloured box to select a colour (it doesn't actually matter which colour you choose- we've used a bright green). Rename the colour as "SPOT WHITE BASE" and ensure that the Solidity is at 100%.

Photoshop should have already coloured your selection with your new colour, but if not simply select your new colour channel and fill.

Your new colour will obscure the cyan, magenta, yellow and black, but only on screen- not when printed onto your DVD or CD.

Save your artwork

The only format which supports spot colours and can be imported into all desktop publishing applications is DCS 2.0. Save your image in this format.

Import your new artwork onto one of our onbody templates (which can be downloaded from the Artwork Template Wizard, accessible from the main menu of this website). We've used a DVD 9 template.

Please note that DCS 2.0 does not support composite printing. This means that you will not be able to produce high resolution printouts or PDFs of this artwork, unless generated from a colour separated PostScript file. DOCdata UK offer a proofing service, which we strongly recommend that you use.

Do you want to know how to achieve a particular effect? If so, send us an email using our contact form. Click here