Full Colour Printing Explained
Full colour printing is also referred to as process colour, 4 colour process or CMYK (which is short for Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Black). These terms all mean the same thing.
Colours have an effect on our emotions within 90 seconds of viewing; Colours can motivate, impress and persuade; Colour impression accounts for up 60% of the acceptance or rejection of a product or service.
Full colour printing uses these four ink colours, in one pass on the printing press, to reproduce literally millions of different colours and shades.
Cyan, magenta, and yellow are the three main pigments used for colour reproduction. When these three colours are combined in printing, the result should be a reasonable reproduction of the original, but it is not. Due to limitations in the ink pigments, the darker colours are dirty and muddied. To resolve this, a black separation is also created, which improves the shadow and contrast of the image and also for any black text.
Cyan, magenta, yellow, and black (CMYK) inks when printed separately. During litho print production, these are printed on top of one another.
C,M,Y,K combined to create the finished image |  |
Full Colour Printing is Environmentally Friendly
Full colour printing is more Environmentally Friendly than 1, 2 or 3 spot colour (Pantone) printing. The solvents used to wash up the press from one spot colour to the next are not needed when printing in full colour - reducing chemical usage by 85%
Pantone or Spot Colour Printing
It must be bought to your attention that four colour process printing is unable to exactly match a spot or Pantone colour but it can produce a fairly close match.
Pantone swatch colours are displayed in special books which not only identify the colours via their unique reference numbers, but also by include the ratio of CMYK colours need to create, as near as possible, the Pantone colour.
Matching Corporate House Colours
The most common requirement for using pantone colours is for Corporate Business Stationery, where very specific house colours may be required.
For this reason our Letterheads and Compliment Slips can now be ordered online in full colour or pantone spot colours, although full colour printing is where it's at for anything else you might need!
