Creative Commercial Printing

While there are several methods for reproducing images in color, specific graphic processes and industrial equipment are employed for mass reproduction of color images on paper. In this sense, “color printing” entails reproduction tactics suited for printing presses capable of thousands or millions of impressions for publishing newspapers and magazines, brochures, cards, posters and comparable mass-market items. In this kind of industrial or commercial printing, the technique utilized to print full-color images, such as color photographs, is referred to as four-color-process or merely procedure printing. Four inks are utilized: 3 secondary colors plus black. These ink colors are cyan, magenta and yellow; abbreviated as CMYK. Cyan may be thought of as minus-red, magenta as minus-green, and yellow as minus-blue. These inks are semi-transparent or translucent. Where two such inks overlap on the paper because of sequential printing impressions, a primary color is perceived. For instance, yellow (minus-blue) overprinted by magenta (minus green) yields red. Where all three inks might overlap, almost all incident light is absorbed or subtracted, yielding near black. It is due to the fact of this poor “subtractive” black that a separate black ink is utilized. The secondary or subtractive colors cyan, magenta and yellow may well be considered “primary” by printers and watercolorists (whose basic inks and paints are transparent).

Two graphic methods are required to prepare images for four-color printing. In the “pre-press” stage, original images are translated into forms that will be utilized on a printing press, through “color separation,” and “screening” or “halftoning.” These actions make feasible the creation of printing plates that may transfer color impressions to paper on printing presses based on the principles of lithography.

An emerging method of full-color printing is six-color procedure printing (for example, Pantone‘sHexachrome system) which adds orange and green to the standard CMYK inks for a larger and far more vibrant gamut, or color range. Nevertheless, such alternate color systems still rely on color separation, halftoning and lithography to produce printed images.

Color printing can also involve as few as 1 color ink, or multiple color inks which are not the primary colors. Making use of a limited number of color inks, or particular color inks in addition to the primary colors, is referred to as “spot color” printing. Usually, spot-color inks are specific formulations which are designed to print alone, as opposed to to blend with other inks on the paper to produce different hues and shades. The range of available spot color inks, much like paint, is nearly unlimited, and much much more varied than the colors that may be produced by four-color-process printing. Spot-color inks range from subtle pastels to intense fluorescents to reflective metallics.