CMYK VS Spot Color. 3 Simple steps to note.

CMYK VS Spot Color. 3 Simple steps to note.

What is the difference between CMYK and Spot Colour?

CMYK Spot Colour
The CMYK process is a method of printing color by using four inks—cyan, magenta, yellow, and black. A majority of the world’s printed material is produced using the CMYK process, and there is a special subset of Pantone colors that can be reproduced using CMYK Spot color classification has led to thousands of discrete colors being given unique names or numbers. There are several industry standards in the classification of spot color systems, such as:

  • Pantone, the dominant spot color printing system in the United States and Europe.
  • Toyo, a common spot color system in Japan.
  • DIC, another common Japanese spot color system.
  • ANPA, a palette of 300 colors specified by the American Newspaper Publishers Association for spot color usage in newspapers.
  • GCMI, a standard for color used in package printing developed by the Glass Packaging Institute (formerly known as the Glass Container Manufacturers Institute, hence the abbreviation).
  • HKS is a color system which contains 120 spot colors and 3250 tones for coated and uncoated paper. HKS is an abbreviation of three German color manufacturers: Hostmann-Steinberg Druckfarben, Kast + Ehinger Druckfarben and H. Schmincke & Co.
Mixed of 4 colours (CMYK) to print 1 specific color Commonly used is the Pantone system which allows for many ‘special’ colors to be produced such as metallics and fluorescents. While most of the Pantone system colors are beyond the printed CMYK gamut
CMYK or process color printing is contrasted with spot color printing, in which specific colored inks are used to produce the colors appearing on paper. Some printing presses are capable of printing with both four-color process inks and additional spot color inks at the same time. High-quality printed materials, such as marketing brochures and books, may include photographs requiring process-color printing, other graphic effects requiring spot colors (such as metallic inks), and finishes such as varnish, which enhances the glossy appearance of the printed piece. Colour comes with a special number codeFor example : vibrant red is Pantone 187

Gold = 872