- #2 color project magenta channel spot color plus
- #2 color project magenta channel spot color professional
This is where problems arise, as whatever method seems right to the computer will often not be correct to the eye. When that check comes back negative, rather than just ignoring those colors in your document, it will automatically attempt to translate your spot colors into some combination of cyan, magenta, yellow and black ink.Ĭolor conversion is not like converting celsius to fahrenheit or liters to gallons it’s not mathematical, and there is no perfect formula for converting any given color into a new color space. If you send a document with spot colors to a process printer, the machine will check to see if it has spot color inks loaded up. If you are using any spot color swatches in your document and you are not going to be printing those with true spot color inks, you must convert those spot color swatches and all instances of those colors in your document to standard CMYK values for best results. Spot color swatches (like Pantone swatches) are indicated with a small dot icon in the same position. In other words, because the input doesn’t match the output.Īs shown in the image above, standard color swatches (such as the “Dark Red” swatch) are indicated in the InDesign swatch panel by a checkered box icon to the right of the swatch name. Why must you do this? Because spot color swatches in a design program aren’t meant to be printed correctly by a process printer they’re meant to register with the printer as the proper spot color. (There are online resources to locate these values as well, but they may not always be 100% accurate.) Unless you or your client are actually shelling out the money to print spot inks, the best way to reproduce those glorious Pantone swatches as accurately as possible is to replace every spot color swatch in your document with its appropriate, Pantone-recommended CMYK swatch, found in the Pantone swatch books.
![2 color project magenta channel spot color 2 color project magenta channel spot color](https://i1.rgstatic.net/publication/290594769_Digital_proofing_of_spot_colors_for_flexo_packaging/links/5cb3645392851c8d22ec322d/largepreview.png)
Getting consistent color without using Pantone inks So you probably can’t print actual Pantone inks on your own, but there’s good news:Įach Pantone swatch in the book includes CMYK, RGB and HTML values to reproduce that swatch color as accurately as possible in standard print and onscreen applications.Īlways be sure to use the CMYK, RGB and/or HTML values recommended here on the Pantone swatch. Even large companies usually reserve spot color printing only for the most important printed materials, or those that only require one or maybe two colors. In short, spot color printing is the best way to ensure color accuracy and a high-quality print, but because of its nature, it’s difficult and often expensive.
#2 color project magenta channel spot color professional
So unless your printer has two extra spots for ink (and it almost certainly doesn’t), this unfortunately means that the job will need to be handled by a professional print shop-and for that matter, will probably not be cheap.
#2 color project magenta channel spot color plus
That would make this a six-color job cyan, magenta, yellow and black plus the two specified spot colors equals six. Let’s say you have a project that you want to print in standard CMYK, except that your client wants their two-color logo printed with the two appropriate spot colors. Most pertinently, spot colors each require their own ink well during printing. In short, spot color printing is the best way to ensure color accuracy and a high-quality print, but because of its nature, it’s difficult and often expensive. This makes spot colors much, much more consistent than process color. Spot colors are also like paint in that they are applied by the printer in a flat uniform layer, as opposed to the tiny halftone dots created by more traditional printing methods like CMYK. They aren’t combinations of cyan, magenta, yellow and/or black created during printing they’re precisely and individually mixed beforehand, kind of like paint. Inks such as this are called “spot” colors.
![2 color project magenta channel spot color 2 color project magenta channel spot color](https://99designs-blog.imgix.net/blog/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/PScheckcolor.jpg)
Pantone inks are special inks that are each created prior to printing. That’s where the Pantone Matching System, called just Pantone or PMS for short, comes in. Even the best process printers are mixing inks on the fly to create a limited range of color, and that can often result in inconsistency. If you're serious about home printing, a 6- or 8-color printer can be a very good investment.) But regardless, there is a limit to the color precision of process printing.
![2 color project magenta channel spot color 2 color project magenta channel spot color](https://img.kelbymediagroup.com/planetphotoshop/uploads/2006/06/spot_color_channels.jpg)
Some printers add extra inks to the standard CMYK-most commonly a light cyan and a light magenta, but sometimes others-for better color reproduction, especially in photos.