XCMYK at Midnight Oil: How government regulations can drive innovation

XCMYK has a lot to offer: using the same traditional four inks, a much larger gamut can be achieved, as well as some very nice blues. Many recent digital presses support it, or they have a color space close to XCMYK. However, the adoption of XCMYK is still relatively low, as I experienced a few years ago when publishing a book with many photos featuring deep blues. I had always wondered why adoption rates were so low. And then Robert Tubbs, Director of Pressroom & Innovation at Midnight Oil, invited me for a chat. This became a discussion about how government regulation spurred a radical innovation project, bringing Midnight Oil to a colorful world.

CONTENTS: A high standard of excellence | The challenge with XCMYK in offset printing | It’s impossible, until someone does it | Food for thought, thoughts for food | The role of the government | Why is this important? 
Originally published: 18/10/2025 – Last update: 22/10/2025

Midnight Oil, which is part of the Imagine Group, is an agency that “elevates marketing to award-winning levels, from concept to execution.” As an agency, Midnight Oil has a multi-disciplinary creative department that supports a state-of-the-art production facility. In-house equipment includes offset, digital flatbed, and digital roll-to-roll capabilities. They ship all their work worldwide, which is a deliberate choice: that way, everything they print (e.g., movie posters) will be the same all over the world. Working with local partners on every continent certainly would make it more challenging to achieve the same extremely high quality that their customers demand.

Many of their customers come from the movie industry. Midnight Oil creates and produces posters and other visuals for the marketing campaigns of movies, including ‘dimensional billboards’. These customers – whose marketing efforts support multimillion-dollar box office and streaming hits – understandably adhere to a high standard of excellence. “They invest a lot of time and effort in their artwork and in the reproduction of these magnificent pieces,” explained Robert. Furthermore, these customers will do a press check for every job.

Before XCMYK, the majority of jobs required special matched spot colors. But that has changed significantly. Now, XCMYK is the go-to tool, including their digital equipment. It has made the lives of those in the pressroom at Midnight Oil a lot easier, and meeting client expectations much more achievable.

The challenge with XCMYK in offset printing
The trick that XCMYK uses to get a much larger gamut seems simple: using higher densities of regular inks. However, in real life, that comes with challenges: the never-ending battle between fountain solutions and inks, plus the complicated drying process. “Ink and fountain solutions are not friends, they are fighting all the time,” said Robert. Standard inks contain a lot of additives to make them compatible with all kinds of fountain solutions. To get the higher densities XCMYK requires, it is important to strike the right formula of inks and fountain solutions that cooperate together. However, a major issue with these additives is that they create harmful emissions that negatively impact the environment.

When they moved into a new building in January 2005, Robert wanted to address VOC emissions. Being located in California, he knew that government regulations had mandated lowering the amount of VOCs over the years. And instead of lowering the amount of VOCs bit by bit, he wanted to go all the way in a ‘big bang’: minimal VOCs, right away.

When starting his quest to obtain consumables with minimal VOCs, his suppliers said it couldn’t be done: “You need those chemicals!” However, Robert persevered and eventually discovered Amerikal, a supplier of vegetable-based chemicals. The owner, who is highly engaged in the development of sustainable press room solutions, proved to be the right partner.

Since then, Midnight Oil buys the base varnish from Amerikal and asks their ink supplier to use that vegetable-based one as the basis for their inks. This way, they removed all the additives in their inks, which significantly improved color consistency and stability on the press. Due to that better stability, they can print what the XCMYK standard proposes: with a 20-micron stochastic dot, a screening that is equal to a 385-line screen. To achieve those 20-micron dots, they had to upgrade their platesetter: the old one produced artifacts when outputting these small structures.

Another advantage of these additive-free inks is that the ink transfer improved greatly, allowing a higher amount of pigment onto a sheet, with a thin layer of ink. That way, they can get the high densities XCMYK requires without any drying problems. “It’s just as easy as G7,” Robert stated, noting that they use the same ink on different substrates, not only paper, but also on nonabsorbent substrates. These offset inks are also used in food packaging. Amerikal calls their combination of ink and fountain solution “THINK(tm),” or “Thin Ink”.

Also interesting to note is that the offset presses at Midnight Oil aren’t the latest generation; the two presses are from 2007 and 1999, and the ink does not require special drying equipment. Just ambient air knives, and there aren’t any drying issues.

In speaking with press operation, their lead pressman Mark Kent, says: “We were already used to exploring new technologies from time to time, so when Robert wanted to test XCMYK, we said, “Why not?’ And how happy I am we did! It has made our lives so much easier.”

It’s impossible, until someone does it
This shows the importance of daring to question ‘old truths’ and seek alternatives. Don’t just settle for the statement that it can’t be done. This reminds me of a project I initiated a long time ago: ICC profiles with significantly lower total area coverage (TAC). A food packaging printer was experiencing issues with drying and asked me if I knew a solution to his problem. He printed in CMYK, and when looking at his artwork and ICC profiles, I wondered if lowering the TAC could help him. However, when I asked seasoned printers about this idea, they all told me that you really need a 350% or 360% TAC to achieve a deep black. But nobody could tell me why…

To make a long story short, we created a series of ICC profiles (for clarification: based on FOGRA 39, not XCMYK). In different steps, we went as low as 180%. Why? Well, why not? After an initial visual check on a monitor, we got images with dark colors (e.g. chocolates), which traditionally would lead to a high ink coverage, printed on an offset press. The 180% prints lacked quality, but the 220% prints were already quite good, and they could certainly be used. When the prints with different images (from 220% to 320% TAC) were shown to seasoned printers, they didn’t really notice a difference.

The food packaging printer started using the 260% TAC profile as his default profile. On some occasions, he even used the 220% profile. His drying problems were solved, his printing process was more stable, and his customers never noticed a difference.

And with that, we proved that something that couldn’t be done according to conventional wisdom turned out to be a perfect solution. You can still download two of the profiles, the 300% and the 260% TAC, from the ICC registry.

Food for thought, thoughts for food
As mentioned previously, the inks Midnight Oil now uses are also used for food packaging, and that’s important. Why? Have you ever compared the gamut of the 4-color XCMYK with a 7-color ECG (Extended Color Gamut, like CMYK + OGV)? This research report by Kiran Deshpande demonstrates how the ECG gamut is only a little bit larger than that of XCYMK. 

People in the packaging industry, both food and non-food, need to be able to print brand logos, but at a minimal cost. For them, the possibility of doing this without the need for spot colors could make a difference in their profit margin. That’s why in packaging there is a lot of interest in ECG. However, with only a relatively small difference between ECG and XCMYK, the latter should also be considered and investigated. The big difference, of course, is that XCMYK is a 4-color process, and requires a 4-color press, while ECG is a 7-color process, which requires a more expensive 7-color press. Midnight Oil has proven that you can print XCMYK with inks for food packaging, without any problems.

The role of the government
When Robert told his story of how a quest for lower VOCs allowed him to run XCMYK and eliminate special formulated inks, it suddenly became clear to me that this is an excellent example of how government regulations can inspire innovation. It is often said that government regulation limits innovation, or even discourages it. But that’s not always the case. It was the lower VOC regulation that drove Robert to seek new partners and new solutions. He succeeded, and even more: his current setup delivers a higher quality, with less effort and trouble.

Why is this important?
XCMYK remains a strong offering, and its challenges and perceived limitations can be solved. As Midnight Oil has shown, overcoming drying issues due to the higher densities and getting consistent 20-micron stochastic screening on the printing plate and on the substrate are all possible.

However, you need the right partners, a combination of inks and fountain solutions that aren’t fighting all the time. Getting rid of the additives might do the job. While government regulations may feel constrictive at times, in Midnight Oil’s case, it inspired creativity, problem-solving, and true innovation. 

Related posts:

XCMYK: regular CMYK gets a boost XCMYK vs CMYK: here’s your business case Designing black for food packaging (not all black is designed equal…)