arrooke
07-02-2003, 07:20 PM
Process Colour:
All colours in your image are made from a combination of 4 'process'
colours. These being cyan, magenta, yellow, black (CMYK).
The inks are transparent. This permits them to blend & mix when laid over
one another to render a full colour spectrum (almost). Look at a colour
newspaper image under a magnifier & you'll see.
The process colour separations are done by the software. Usually page layout
software or RIP (raster image processor) software. Illustrator can also
output separarations, as will Photoshop, Corel & similar applications.
To attain Spot Colour:
Use the spot (or solid) colour swatch. It matters not whether you use the
coated or uncoated version. They are the exact same colour anyway. However,
inks chosen can appear differently, depending on the paper that is used for
printing.
Spot (solid) inks are laid down by the press as solid colours. Print jobs
containing 4 solid colours or less are generally run spot colour. That is .
.. . instead of mixing cyan & yellow to make green, the job will be run with
green ink. Obviously full colour images would not be done in this manner or
you'd end up with something such as your 16 colour job, or more likely, a
several hundred colour job.
Note that spot colour files must be saved as EPS to retain the spot colour
information.
Print jobs are often a combination of spot & process. Particularly when one
colour has to be accurate (such as a company logo) and is unachievable using
process inks. Hence the use of 5 & more colour printing presses.
Which method costs more than the other is a non-issue. It will just make
sense to do a given job one way or the other, so there is really no
benchmark for comparison. Very seldom would there be a choice between the
method used - it depends on the artwork. There's a lot more to it, but
that's the basic thrust.
Keith.
Hello all--I have read Deke McClelland's narrative on color about five times now and I still am somewhat confused. First of all, am I correct in that SPOT colors cost you more to print, because they are on a single plate? Second-I am using the Pantone Process Coated library and working in a CMYK color mode. I chose my colors from the above library, but when I took my project to InDesign and did a preflight--it told me I had 16 spot colors. What important bit of info am I not getting here? Do I have to use my fan guides and "create" each formula for the process color? Thanks.
All colours in your image are made from a combination of 4 'process'
colours. These being cyan, magenta, yellow, black (CMYK).
The inks are transparent. This permits them to blend & mix when laid over
one another to render a full colour spectrum (almost). Look at a colour
newspaper image under a magnifier & you'll see.
The process colour separations are done by the software. Usually page layout
software or RIP (raster image processor) software. Illustrator can also
output separarations, as will Photoshop, Corel & similar applications.
To attain Spot Colour:
Use the spot (or solid) colour swatch. It matters not whether you use the
coated or uncoated version. They are the exact same colour anyway. However,
inks chosen can appear differently, depending on the paper that is used for
printing.
Spot (solid) inks are laid down by the press as solid colours. Print jobs
containing 4 solid colours or less are generally run spot colour. That is .
.. . instead of mixing cyan & yellow to make green, the job will be run with
green ink. Obviously full colour images would not be done in this manner or
you'd end up with something such as your 16 colour job, or more likely, a
several hundred colour job.
Note that spot colour files must be saved as EPS to retain the spot colour
information.
Print jobs are often a combination of spot & process. Particularly when one
colour has to be accurate (such as a company logo) and is unachievable using
process inks. Hence the use of 5 & more colour printing presses.
Which method costs more than the other is a non-issue. It will just make
sense to do a given job one way or the other, so there is really no
benchmark for comparison. Very seldom would there be a choice between the
method used - it depends on the artwork. There's a lot more to it, but
that's the basic thrust.
Keith.
Hello all--I have read Deke McClelland's narrative on color about five times now and I still am somewhat confused. First of all, am I correct in that SPOT colors cost you more to print, because they are on a single plate? Second-I am using the Pantone Process Coated library and working in a CMYK color mode. I chose my colors from the above library, but when I took my project to InDesign and did a preflight--it told me I had 16 spot colors. What important bit of info am I not getting here? Do I have to use my fan guides and "create" each formula for the process color? Thanks.