Learning to know when to use four-color process or spot color in certain situations will make a big difference when setting up your design for printing. You will obviously obtain a good quality printed design and it will also save you money and time. This article will discuss this topic thoroughly by explaining these processes so that you will be properly guided.
What process should you use four-color process vs spot color? Use spot color in t-shirt printing when you have a higher number of unique colors. The output will be brighter and have finer design details. If there are four or fewer colors in my design, the costs will be comparable using the four-color process.
I will start this article by going over each of these process methods.
Four Color Process
This process utilizes four colors: Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, and Keyline or Black or more known as (CMYK). It is also the most familiarly used printing type as it is utilized by many home-based, digital, and offset printers.
Artwork will then have to be properly separated into each of these same colors by assigning one plate for each color. The inks of these colors will then be applied separately to four distinct plates as the garment is sent to its printing press. Each particular ink is applied to the material one by one to get the finished product.
The image that is generated is merely an illusion that fools the naked eye making it think that is is seeing a continuous tone rather than dots.
Each of the process color used in this method is made of a certain percentage of cyan, magenta, yellow, and black colored inks. And each combination of these percentages mixed in will produce different color hues. You might think that the combinations will be limitless but it is not necessarily so especially when compared to spot colors.
In this method, the same colors are all printed in dots and these same dots of color form rosettes. Each color of these dots is printed at differing screen angles. If you want to see these dots in action, check out the cartoons printed in your Sunday paper and you will see them coarsely laid out on newsprint.
However, digital printing may not always generate a rosette pattern. They may instead create a sprayed or scattered dot pattern which looks random and is very much similar to inkjet printing.
You can create areas of a solid and single color from these CMYK dots. They are called four-color builds.
CMYK is known in the screen printing trade for being able to print photorealistic screen printing designs.
It is also primarily intended for white color garments since the inks used here are extremely transparent. The color of the garment also has an effect on the result of the screen print. An example would be getting a green result when you use the cyan ink on a yellow garment.
When To Use Four Color Process
These are the instances when you should use this method:
- You should use this method for process screen printing jobs that have multi-colored inks in the design.
- This is needed if your design incorporates the use of a full-colored photograph. I recommend that you create decorative elements like borders or graphics around this same photograph from process colors. This is to save on the costs of extra plates for spot color use.
- It is practical and economical to use when you have a digital small item or short runs printing requirement.
Limitations Of Four Color Process
Please review these factors when you are considering the four color process method.
- Certain builds such as greens, browns, pastels, and oranges are hard to recreate here.
- When using an offset or digital press, you may see uneven solids produced. This is because of the different color dots being used. You may have an issue of consistency here.
- Banding, which are stripes that are pronounced, is a very possible outcome here.
- Jagged lines that are fine and curved is printed using CMYK since each of these lines are comprised of four colors in dots. You need to set the line weight of at least 1 point to work around this limitation.
Spot Colors
Spot colors are separate colors pre-mixed to follow a certain recipe. These recipes are primarily taken from the Pantone Management System or (PMS).
There are eighteen basic colors in this guide. The formula indicated to get the required color has to be followed strictly and must be precise. Printing manufacturers that are licensed by Pantone to manufacture these inks must be approved yearly through submission of these eighteen basic colors to Pantone.
Spot colors or solid colors are not created from screens or multi-colored dots.
A color is identified by the name following the format of PMS###. ### stands for the characters assigned for this specific color.
There is also a C or U in this code which indicates to what paper stock is this color to be used on – C for Coated and U for Uncoated. Coated colors are used for magazine and glossy publications while uncoated ones are for matte surfaces such as letterheads.
It would be better to cite this code when talking to your printer about your requirements so that you will be assured that you have the same color in mind.
You will notice that spot colors have a cleaner and more vibrant look when compared to the builds in CMYK. There are also more unique colors for you to choose from.
Usually, more than one pass of colors or double-bump is usually undertaken to achieve this desired look. It also makes the surface look more even.
Printing with distinct colors that are either metallic or with fluorescent hues is possible with spot colors. Although many of Pantone colors are also at hand with CMYK, there are still hues that are not included and they must be corrected or toned down when translated to fit.
Since these inks require their own separate printing plate and press, spot printing jobs are more costly.
When To Use Spot Colors
You should use the spot color method for the following situations:
- Consistent color matching across all media is required for your printing jobs.
- If your process screen printing job only has four or less than colors needed, this is a less expensive option for you.
- Logos which need bright and exceptional colors, mainly use this method.
- Your design has fine line details within it.
- Your design has large tints within it and a big percentage of colors that need to be matched from one spread to the next.
Limitations Of Spot Colors
These are the limiting factors in using the spot color method.
- If you really need to use a dark color garment, you will need a separate image from one that you are using for a white garment. You also have to invert the artwork and form a white outline of your design. And if your design is going to be only text, there is no further requirement to create a separate image for this one.
- The quantity of the colors that you can use here is limited to what’s indicated inside the PMS.
- Spot colors are comparable to four color process when using an offset press and there are only four colors or less that are needed in the design.
Tips In Using Color In Your Design
Regardless of what color method you are considering using in your design, the following are some suggestions to prevent you from making mistakes.
- If you will be doing small runs on a digital press, avoid using big solid colors. You need to also keep away from patterns to prevent banding and making thick lines to lessen instances of jagged ones.
- For designs that will be reproduced in magazines, use colors that can be properly duplicated as builds. You can easily find this from the PMS guides as colors with four dots indicated under color model number.
- Invest in the basic PMS guide if you are serious about your color production since this will give you the right information.
- Stay away from relying on how simulated process colors will look like based on how you see them on your computer monitors since it is probably not calibrated well. The fact is that RGB and printed colors are not one and the same. Instead, look at proofs if you are using CMYK and the drawdowns for spot colors if you really want to check on your design.
- Check the simulated process samples produced by each method and from the particular press before finally deciding whether to use CMYK or spot color inks. Check closely the hue variations and saturation, solid coverages, and fine line smoothness.
Conversion Of Spot Color To Four Color Process
It is possible that a spot color will be requested when you are designing a four color process printed piece. You will need to evaluate this spot color well to see how it will finally look like when printed using CMYK.
There are colors that can easily be simulated but there are also some that are simply outside the possible color selections. The result of this will be a very different look when printed. You can use the Pantone Color Bridge Guides and the Pantone Extended Gamut Coated Guides for references here.
When you are designing the artwork, you can make this conversion using Adobe’s Illustrator and InDesign software.
Both of these software have the ability to convert these design colors to CMYK. I will suggest that you closely review the changes to see if you still would want to proceed with the conversion. As mentioned earlier, I will not rely on what I see on the monitor but instead, check on the generated proof itself.
Extended Color Gamut (ECG) Process Colors
The other name for this is the Fixed Palette Printing which is now gaining popularity. Through this process, you will get seven process colors instead of the usual four.
This type of printing makes use of added base inks to the traditional process CMYK so that the color gamut can be likewise extended.
Pantone has also adopted this type of printing by adding a total of three base inks which are: green, orange, and violet and to the CMYK set.
The benefits of these additional colors are: 1) it will increase the overall range of colors used and 2) it will lead to production efficiencies since this is a better setup rather than supporting a multitude of dedicated special colors.
Seven color process printing can now cover up to 90% of Pantone colors whereas it was only 65% for four color process.
As a designer and a printer, you will obviously benefit from a much wider range of colors available for your t-shirts. You are probably going to realize increased sales with your t-shirts since it is proven that buyers make a decision to buy based on the color selection alone.
You will also realize more press uptime and capacity here along with less time and materials used. You can now gang up on single runs separate jobs that before, would need a wash up between spot colors. Lastly, you do not need to keep an eye always on multiple color breakdowns and order, mix, and store inks as before.
There are also challenges with this ECG setup.
Registration issue is one since copies that used to be run on only a single spot color will be a challenge once it is made to print with screens of three different colors. There will be an issue here in color matching when it is being printed repeatedly.
Your personnel has to be properly trained here especially with the pre-press and printing processes. Adequate technical support will have to be sourced also.
Related Questions
What is the difference between process color and spot color?
Process colors are used mainly when a job has a requirement for a lot of colors. This type of color utilizes a mixture of these four process standard inks, namely: cyan, yellow, magenta, and black. Spot inks are not cheap when used in color photo printing.
What is four color process printing?
This refers particularly to the CMYK process color model which is primarily utilized in printing of colors and can also describe the actual printing process itself. This is a color model that is also subtractive by nature. There are four color components here, namely: cyan, yellow, magenta, and black.
What is a spot color in printing?
Spot colors are any colors that are created by either a pure or mixed ink and utilized in a single print run. This is used quite a lot in offset printing and consists of four process standard inks, namely: cyan, magenta, black, and yellow or CMYK.
Why do some printers use spot colors?
The primary purpose as to why some printers use spot colors is to maintain consistency. That way, colors would remain the same regardless of which print vendor handled the job. Another reason for this is to keep printing costs controlled because each color plate that is used will require money.
