Spot Colors
Even if you’re not in the printing industry, you’ve probably used spot colors. For instance, they are on our walls and cars. They are surrounding us.
In offset printing, commercial printers specially formulate and pre-mix spot colours to achieve specific, consistent colours. They offer these as an alternative to process colours, which combine varying amounts of cyan, magenta, yellow, and black (CMYK) to create different hues in their print jobs. A color reference for the particular spot color type is often used to ensure accurate reproduction.
Spot colours excel in printing solid, bright colours and reproducing corporate colours or specific shades difficult to achieve with CMYK. They frequently serve in printing spot illustrations such as charts, maps, and diagrams and where brands need to be faithfully reproduced such as in printing Company logos and other color specific brand elements.
Spot Color Systems
In printing, there are several different spot colour systems that publish color references, each with their own set of colours. Here are a few examples:
Pantone Matching System (PMS): This is one of the most widely used spot colour systems for producing a wide range of printing colours. The Pantone system includes over 1,800 different colours, each with its own unique number, and is used by graphic designers and printers to ensure colour consistency across various printing methods and materials.
Toyo Color Finder: This spot color system, which is similar to PMS and offers a wide range of colours, is widely used in Asia, particularly in Japan.
RAL Classic: This is a spot colour system that is primarily used in Europe for industrial and architectural coatings, among other things. The RAL system has 210 colours, each with its own unique number.
Graphic designers and printers use the Focoltone system (FOur COLour TONE) to create spot colours for printing. The Focoltone system comes in a variety of colours, each with its own unique number.
DIC Color Guide: This system is popular in Asia and is used in the printing and packaging industries. The DIC system includes a wide variety of colours, each with its own unique number.
Pantone
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Adobe’s Creative Cloud applications, including Photoshop, InDesign, and Illustrator, no longer support free Pantone spot colors. Customers must now pay a monthly ($15) or annual ($90) subscription fee via the Adobe Pantone Connect plugin in order to gain access to the entire collection of Pantone color books. This modification resulted from Pantone’s decision to alter its business model and require direct payment from customers. Some Photoshop users have reported that older files containing Pantone colors are now black. However, workarounds such as disabling updates and copying metadata values are available. See the full story.
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Spot color printing is a technique used in the printing industry to reproduce solid colors that are not easily achieved with process printing. Process printing, on the other hand, involves mixing different percentages of cyan, magenta, yellow, and black (CMYK) colors to create a wide range of hues. Spot colors are pre-mixed ink colors that are specified using a color reference system such as Pantone or HKS. These inks provide more accurate and consistent results compared to process colors when reproducing specific shades or brand logos. In contrast, process printing is more cost-effective for projects requiring a large number of colors or gradients.
Combining Process and Spot Colors
In the printing process, spot colors can be combined with process colors to enhance certain elements within a design while maintaining color accuracy. This hybrid method allows for greater flexibility in achieving desired visual effects without compromising on quality. By incorporating spot colors strategically alongside CMYK inks during production, printers can achieve vibrant solid color areas and precise details within complex designs.
Overall, understanding the differences between spot color printing and process printing is crucial for designers and printers alike when striving for high-quality results in print projects and print jobs. Integrating spot and process coloring effectively requires careful consideration of ink choices, design elements, and overall project objectives to ensure optimal outcomes in the final printed piece.
