An Introduction to Process Color
Process color is the means to create full-color images in the printing process by combining layers of the four basic process colors into thousands of other colors.
What is CMYK color?
CMYK (or "process color" or "full color") defines the 4 basic colors that can be combined to create almost any color you can imagine. The four basic process colors are:
"C" - Cyan (kind of a aqua/blue)
"M" - Magenta (kind of an "electric pink")
"Y" - Yellow, like a banana
"K" - Black
How is my stuff turned into process color artwork?
When you design for process color printing, it is important that your design program can work in the CMYK color space. RGB is NOT the same thing (it is Red, Green, and Blue). By using a CMYK color palette, your resulting design will be composed of colors that can be separated into C, M, Y, and K plates for commercial printing.
It is important that everything you do is in the CMYK color space. If you use any imported images in your design, it is important that they be in CMYK-mode before you import them - you don't want to rely on a default import filter to accurately make the color changes you want - convert the image and proof it before you import it. This is one of the most common mistakes made.
So, we don't turn your artwork into CMYK - you do it when the design is put together.
How does process color actually work?
Let's take a look at an image:
To recreate the image in process color, it is broken down into a Cyan component, a Magenta component, a Yellow component and a Black (K) component. The combination of these colors will faithfully reproduce the original image. Each color is printed in a separate pass.
Why use Process (CMYK) Black instead of just Black (K) in my designs?
Many first-time designers are disappointed with the depth and darkness of the black areas of their designs. This can be attributed to how the color "black" is specified. Specifying a 100% K (Black) value doesn't do exactly what you think.
To get a richer, deeper, darker black, it is better to use Process Black - 100% C, 100% M, 100% Y, and 100% K. The following picture will show why:
As you can see, the black-color created using the combination of 100C-100M-100Y-100K is much more like the "black" we think of.
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