Colour & Ink beginner strikingphysicalimpossible-on-screen

Metallic and Fluorescent Ink

Metallic and Fluorescent Ink example frame

Inks that cannot be built from CMYK, so they only exist as a separate pass.

What it does

Pantone 806 fluorescent pink and metallic silver 877 cannot be reproduced by process colour at all: the fluorescent re-emits ultraviolet as visible light and the metallic contains actual aluminium flake. That is exactly why they signal print. Metallic reflectivity changes with viewing angle, so a metallic solid is never one flat value. Fluorescents look wrong on screen because a monitor cannot exceed its own gamut, which is part of their appeal on paper.

The prompt

[Subject] printed with one spot metallic silver and one fluorescent pink alongside black. The metallic shifting in value across its area as the angle changes rather than sitting as one flat tone, the fluorescent pink glowing hotter than any process colour could reproduce. Everything else restrained in flat black. Uncoated stock so the metallic sits slightly dull and the fluorescent soaks in.

Replace [Subject] with what you are shooting. Everything else is deliberate: the gear, stock and lighting are what push a generator towards this look.

Works well in

Midjourney, FLUX

Pairs with

Risograph DuotoneFoil Stamp and Deboss

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