Help creating an underbase

thats how ive been doing it for years, it seems to work for me. add a white outline to your underbase for choke registration........now im curious if theres a different way.

amp267 said:

thats how ive been doing it for years, it seems to work for me. add a white outline to your underbase for choke registration........now im curious if theres a different way.

Click to expand...

I do the same thing but how does adding the white outline help with choke registration? I know about the chokeing of the underbase to keep it from peeking out when the registration isn't perfect (most of the time...lol) but how does adding the white outlinehelp with that? wouldn't it make the underbase larger and peek out even more?

treadhead said:

I do the same thing but how does adding the white outline help with choke registration? I know about the chokeing of the underbase to keep it from peeking out when the registration isn't perfect (most of the time...lol) but how does adding the white outlinehelp with that? wouldn't it make the underbase larger and peek out even more?

Click to expand...

i wondered the same when I read it, but I was just fooling around with what he said and it works! the white outline actually chokes the underbase.

thanks for this tip. That's a much better way to choke than what I was doing.

Question, whats a good thickness to make the outline?

You can create an underbase using photopaint to apply a color mask. You can expand or reduce the mask as needed for your design. I have had good luck using 2 pixels.

Ok..I think I may understand.

By using a white outline..and the fact that the outline is split with half going inside the edge of the image and the other half going outside the image...the outlined image will print with the outer edge reduced by half the thickness of the outline. The outline doesn't print because white doesn't print (unless it is pantone trans. white).

Is that how it works??

treadhead said:

Ok..I think I may understand.

By using a white outline..and the fact that the outline is split with half going inside the edge of the image and the other half going outside the image...the outlined image will print with the outer edge reduced by half the thickness of the outline. The outline doesn't print because white doesn't print (unless it is pantone trans. white).

Is that how it works??

Click to expand...

That's exactly how it works. So if you want to choke it 1pt, add a 2pt outline. Depending on the art, I sometimes add a "blue" outline to the "blue" overprint instead of choking the underbase.

treadhead said:

ok..i think i may understand.

By using a white outline..and the fact that the outline is split with half going inside the edge of the image and the other half going outside the image...the outlined image will print with the outer edge reduced by half the thickness of the outline. The outline doesn't print because white doesn't print (unless it is pantone trans. White).

Is that how it works??

Click to expand...

thats exactly how it works, i like to choke the underbase rather than expand my artwork to make lines thicker, keeps the original artwork same thickness as original. Your outline will depend on size of artwork, and how tight of registration your press can hold. I use to have to put a thick outline to hold good registration with my caps-press. Now i use a rototex and can get away with a hairline outline in corel, there is always exceptions

Got it!

Thanks folks....

Personally I use the contour feature from the effects menu. Set the size to .008, inside. This will choke it down that much. You have to play with the setting if it's too much or little. There's alot of tricks for setting the artwork up for this contour, but by using it you get a very nice underbase.
Hope this helps