RGB vs CMYK | Spot Colors | Duotone | Grayscale | Gradients | Resolution | Bleed & Border | File Formats | Font Types
Spot Colors
Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Black may be the standard inks used in the industry, but it is limited in the range of colors it can reproduce, and if your project calls for a specific color, you might need to use a spot color to get the color you want.
These colors can be used by themselves for single color or duotone jobs, or in addition to CMYK. With our large presses, we can print projects with up to 8 colors, so the only limit is your imagination. We can specially mix custom inks to match practically any color you wish to use, but we primarily work with Pantone® color guides.
If you wish to use spot colors, they need to be mentioned in your estimate request, as they will change the total number of color plates, affecting the overall cost to run the job. They must also be specified in your working file as spot colors, or they will print using CMYK. In the example to the right, using Adobe In-Design, the spot colors Pantone 382 C and 654C are specified. Adobe products have digital swatchbooks built in, so you can select your spot colors easily, but keep in mind the kind of paper your project will use, as there are different swatchbooks for coated and uncoated stock, or special inks like metallics and flourescent colors. To clear up any confusion in prepress, double check to make sure your spot colors are identified properly, and delete all unused colors from your swatches palette.
