The Powis Parker P21x Foilfast printer is designed to work with virtually any graphics program that you might use on a Mac or a PC. The printer automatically interprets the colors used in your artwork and converts them to one of the seven available colors of foil. Medium grays are interpreted as silver, and light grays are interpreted as white. For best results the P21x is designed for use with Comp Covers and Clear Covers for tape bound documents and with FoilFast title sheets for Fastback hard cover books. However, the printer can also be used on a variety of other substrates. Be sure to test the printer on new papers or covers before printing a large number of covers.

Foilfast foil cartridges are available in seven colors (red, green, blue, silver, gold, white, and black). You may load up to seven colors into the Foilfast printer at the same time, or you may load just a single color. Additionally, there is a Foil Primer cartridge. The Foil Primer cartridge is used to print on surfaces that normally would not accept the foil, such as Clear Cover and Suede Foilfast Title sheets.

Printing with Single Ink (One Foil Color)

This print mode allows you to print a document in monochrome using one cartridge. It does not matter which color, or colors, you use in your artwork, all colors will print in the chosen color. If you are printing in gold foil only, you do not need to make your art yellow. Create your artwork in black. This will make it easier to read and adjust.

Printing with Multiple Inks (2 or More Colors)

This print mode allows you to print a document in multiple colors. The colors you use are automatically assigned to the closest color space, this includes spot colors such as Pantone colors. You can use up to seven colors on Comp Cover and six colors on Clear Cover.

To print with the white foil, you must have some light tone assigned to an object. If an object is assigned 0% value in all colors, it will not print with any of the foils, whereas a 1% value in any color will print as white. We recommend using 1%-5% black for white values, and 50% black for silver values. 100% black will print with black foil. Avoid colors that have no foil cartridge equivalent, such as purple or orange. These may not print in the color you desire.

Using an Undercoat (Foil Primer)

The Undercoat feature of the Foilfast printer is designed to let you print on surfaces that normally would not accept the foil, such as Clear Cover and Suede Foilfast Title sheets. Undercoat uses the Foil Primer cartridge. Unlike the other foil cartridge, the Foil Primer is listed in the multiple inks menu, but is chosen by checking the Undercoat button in the Properties dialog box (see Foilfast printing-Chapter x for more information). Undercoat can also be assigned when you are using a single color of foil. Some of the presets in the Properties window are preassigned for Undercoat Printing. If you are using the Foil Primer cartridge to apply and undercoat to the sheet you are printing, you can only use six colors at a time.