About Process+
Process+ is the most intentional and complex fluorescent pink design strategy. Rather than applying fluorescent ink globally, Process+ uses strategic placement of FL Pink and FL Pink 2 underlays beneath specific CMYK regions to extend the color gamut exactly where you need it.
The Dual-Color Approach
Process+ utilizes both of Indigo's fluorescent ink spot colors, each with distinct characteristics:
FL Pink
Variable-opacity workhorse. Perfect for subtle color building, gradient work, and controlled enhancement. Use where you want nuanced, buildable effects.
FL Pink 2
Guaranteed double-hit powerhouse. Delivers maximum impact with full saturation. Use for showstopper elements and high-saturation foundations.
Strategic Layer Building
The "Electric Desert Pink" example demonstrates how Process+ creates a dramatic "subset gradient" effect. Each band of the desert landscape has its own FL Pink underlay, allowing the CMYK overprint to achieve colors beyond the standard gamut.
The strategy: FL Pink 2 where you want guaranteed drama, FL Pink where you want controlled enhancement. Every layer stays separate, so these interactions compound rather than muddy.
In this piece, the lightning bolt uses FL Pink 2 as its foundation, giving maximum intensity to the main focal point. The desert landscape layers FL Pink and FL Pink 2 at varying opacities to enhance the sunset gradations. Because FL Pink works like a process color, it can run through a gradient as easily as it fills a solid shape.
Two inks, two purposes: FL Pink builds color gradually with variable opacity. FL Pink 2 delivers guaranteed maximum saturation with an automatic double-hit from the press (200% total ink coverage).
Why Process+?
Bright pinks are notoriously hard to print in four colors. Pastels are easy, but going bright means raising the density of magenta, and magenta pushed hard leans red or mauve. Oranges, greens, and violets have the same problem. Fluorescent pink is unusual because it can extend the gamut of the colors around it while still improving overall color reproduction. Treated as part of the process, it can benefit any color build that would normally contain magenta.
We teach four paths to fluorescence, and Process+ is the third and the most deliberate. The first treats fluorescent pink as an ordinary spot color. The second swaps magenta for FL Pink at the press, with no changes to your file: zero extra work, but the results are unpredictable. The fourth, IndiGlow, handles the enhancement automatically through a custom profile. Process+ is the path for designing with fluorescent pink from the ground up, deciding for every region how much pink sits beneath the CMYK and which of the two inks provides it.
That control has a cost. Process+ asks you to think strategically about every layer, and it is the most technically complex option. The reward is colors that don't exist in traditional printing, placed exactly where you want them and nowhere else.
Interactive Tools
Explore how Process+ builds extended gamut colors with these interactive demos.
Best Practices
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Use exact naming: Spot colors must be named
FL PinkandFL Pink 2exactly (case-sensitive, with space) for the press to recognize them. - Layer strategically: Place FL Pink 2 where you want maximum impact, FL Pink where you want controlled, buildable enhancement.
- Stack for intensity: You can achieve up to 300% total fluorescent coverage by stacking FL Pink (100%) over FL Pink 2 (200% auto double-hit).
- No overprint on FL Pink 2: FL Pink 2 should always be 100% opacity. Use FL Pink for variable opacity and gradient work.
- Choose bright substrates: Fluorescent inks perform best on papers with high Optical Brightening Agents (OBA). Higher gloss amplifies the effect.
- Proof on paper: Your monitor can't show you what fluorescent pink really looks like, and neither can photo or digital proofs. If the project depends on the exact color, invest in a hard copy proof.
- Give it contrast: Muted backgrounds make fluorescent elements pop harder, and dark backgrounds make them glow. Avoid surrounding key fluorescent elements with competing bright colors.
- Expect darker greens: Pink sits across the color wheel from green, so a brighter green takes two steps: fluorescent pink builds a new blue, and that blue with yellow builds the green. The extra ink keeps the achievable greens in forest and Kelly shades.
- Test on colored stock: On anything darker than cream, fluorescent pink needs a white ink foundation, and white ink changes how the fluorescence behaves. Always test first.
- Think beyond daylight: Under black light, fluorescent pink glows a deep red. It also works with foil, white ink, metallic ink, and lamination, so it can join almost any other special effect.