The short version
- CMYK toner is semi-transparent. It needs white paper underneath to look bright, so on kraft, black or coloured stock your colours go dull and pale shades all but disappear.
- White toner fixes it two ways. Print white on its own as a colour, or lay it under your CMYK as a base.
- Colours over a white underlay still won't match the same artwork on white stock. That's a limit of the process, not your file.
- Building the white layer is a prepress job. We'll do it from $120+GST, once per design.
Why colour dies on a coloured stock
CMYK toner is semi-transparent. On white stock, light passes through the toner, hits the paper and bounces back up through it. That reflected light is what makes a colour look bright.
Take the white paper away and that stops working.
On kraft, the brown soaks up part of the light and pushes its own warm cast through everything sitting on top. Pale colours mostly vanish. Blues go grey. Yellows sink into the stock and disappear entirely. On black stock, almost nothing shows at all.
This catches people out because the file looks fine on screen. A monitor is backlit and shows you the colour you designed. The press can only work with the light bouncing off the paper in front of it.
Two ways to use white toner
White as the colour
Print white type, a logo or a solid shape straight onto the stock. High contrast, clean edges and it looks sharp against a dark or coloured background. If your artwork is one colour, this is usually the best thing you can do.
White as an underlay
We lay white down first, then print your CMYK on top of it. Your colours now have something light to sit on instead of sinking into the stock. Bold brand colours and solid areas come back close to where they should be.
Both run inline on our Fujifilm Revoria press in a single pass, alongside your CMYK. No second run, no extra handling, no separate setup charge on the print itself.
Stock by stock
How much white you need depends on what you're printing on and how pale your colours are.
| Stock | What happens without white | What we'd use |
|---|---|---|
| Kraft card and paper | Eats light colours, leaves dark ones mostly intact. Yellows disappear. | White alone looks excellent. An underlay for bold brand colours. |
| Black and dark stock | Almost nothing shows. You have very few options without white. | White type and logos. Full colour needs an underlay or it won't show. |
| Coloured stock | Same as kraft. Depends how dark the stock is and how pale your colours are. | A pastel might need nothing. A deep navy needs a full underlay. |
| Clear and transparent | Whatever is under the label shows straight through your artwork. | White behind anything you want read. Here it goes from useful to essential. |
What it can't do
White toner isn't the same as white paper. Colours printed over an underlay are never quite as good as the same artwork on white stock.
The toner layer isn't fully opaque, so a little of the stock still comes through underneath. That puts your base closer to a warm off-white than a true white, and colours on top read slightly flatter and slightly less bright. You'll also see a small difference in sheen where the toner sits against the bare stock.
That's a limitation of digital printing on a coloured stock, not something a better file fixes. If exact colour matching is critical, print on white stock instead. If you want the look of kraft or black, this is as close as it gets, and for most retail packaging and point of sale work it's more than close enough.
Works well
Bold solid colours, logos, type, flat shapes, strong brand palettes.
Harder
Photographs, soft gradients, skin tones, anything where a small shift in colour is obvious.
If you're not sure which side of that line your artwork falls on, send it through and we'll tell you honestly before you commit to a run.
Artwork and pricing
If your designer has done white toner work before, put the white on its own layer with a spot colour swatch named White, set to 100%. Let us know whether you want it as a spot colour or as an underlay and we'll run it as supplied.
$120+GST
We'll build the white layer for you
Most designers have never had to separate a white channel, because most print doesn't need one. It's a prepress job rather than a design job, so there's no reason your designer should already know it.
Send us your normal print-ready artwork. That covers separating the white layer, building the underlay, trapping it so nothing shows a white edge, and a proof for you to sign off before we print.
You pay it once per design. Reprint the same job next year and there's nothing more to pay.
Straightforward artwork like a logo, type and solid shapes sits at $120+GST. Photo-heavy work or anything that needs masking takes longer, so send it through and we'll tell you the number before we start. No surprises at invoice time.
Send us your artwork →Order online
White toner is an option when you configure these products, with the price shown before you order.
Printing something else on a coloured stock? Give us a call on 09 308 1510 and we'll sort it.