CMYK
Have you ever heard the term four color process or CMYK and wondered exactly what it meant? All full color printing that is not printed digitally is printed by separating all the colors into four color elements, cyan(blue), magenta (red), yellow, and black. All the colors you see are created by combining those four colors in different amounts. In the recent past your original was separated into the four colors with a camera and filters but today, it is done by scanning the piece digitally if it was not created as an electronic file. The colors are printed as very fine dots in a rosette pattern. If you have never done so I suggest you look at a full color printed piece with a magnifying lens. You will easily see the rosette pattern of dots in the four colors. How fine the dots are and how carefully they are in register effects the final quality of the printing.
Today, most full color printing is produced on a four, five, or six color offset press. Each of the four colors has a unit with a plate. On a press that is five or six colors there will often be a unit for varnish or another type of coating. Another unit can be used for a PMS color if the project calls for this and it can all be produced with one pass of the press; the paper has to go through the press only one time for all the ink to be printed on it. When I first started in the printing industry we produced our full color (four color process) printing on a two color press. This required two passed through the press for a four color job. Great skill on the part of the pressman was essential to produce high quality printing as well as a lot more time on the press.
There are many elements that are involved in producing a quality full color piece. The dpi, line screen, screen angles, how the ink goes on the paper effects dot gain, the register, and of course the quality of the original or original electronic file that the project is printed from.
Today, most full color printing is produced on a four, five, or six color offset press. Each of the four colors has a unit with a plate. On a press that is five or six colors there will often be a unit for varnish or another type of coating. Another unit can be used for a PMS color if the project calls for this and it can all be produced with one pass of the press; the paper has to go through the press only one time for all the ink to be printed on it. When I first started in the printing industry we produced our full color (four color process) printing on a two color press. This required two passed through the press for a four color job. Great skill on the part of the pressman was essential to produce high quality printing as well as a lot more time on the press.
There are many elements that are involved in producing a quality full color piece. The dpi, line screen, screen angles, how the ink goes on the paper effects dot gain, the register, and of course the quality of the original or original electronic file that the project is printed from.