Spot colors?

[beatz]

Hi,

can anyone clear me up what spot colors are and how to produce them in XaraX - or in Illustrator for that matter ?

Is it some kind of color pallette or something like RGB/CMYK ? Maybe the Pantone pallettes ?

I'm still pretty much a newbie when it comes to printing issues and one of my customers is asking if i could produce a design in "spot colors" as well.

Any help is appreciated. http://www.talkgraphics.com/images/smilies/smile.gif

Thanks,

Frank

[beatz]

Hi,

can anyone clear me up what spot colors are and how to produce them in XaraX - or in Illustrator for that matter ?

Is it some kind of color pallette or something like RGB/CMYK ? Maybe the Pantone pallettes ?

I'm still pretty much a newbie when it comes to printing issues and one of my customers is asking if i could produce a design in "spot colors" as well.

Any help is appreciated. http://www.talkgraphics.com/images/smilies/smile.gif

Thanks,

Frank

[Mickie]

Spot colors are ink colors that have been mixed for printers...Pantone PMS colors are the most well known. If you are only using two colors, your spot color (including tints) and black, it will be cheaper to print than CMYK which is using a mix of four colors and therefore four plates.

Mickie

WordStyleinc.com

[beatz]

Thanks both for your help - it's appreciated !

However i still have some questions:

- What's the difference between process colors and spot colors or to be more specific, when do i use which and what's the standard for print?

- Mickie, you said spot colors are cheaper to print than CMYK but i thought there is only CMYK and RGB ? In other words, if i wanna create a file in XX for print, will i use the Process palette or the Spot colors one and should i then export in CMYK or RGB ?

Thanks a lot,

Frank

[Mickie]

If you are only using 2 colors...black and a spot color, it is probably cheaper than CMYK because they are using 2 plates rather than 4.

Many companies have chosen a spot color for their logos...it's not just green it's a specific Pantone colored ink...you might be able to get close with CMYK, but not exact...so they want anything with their logo printed with that specific ink.

There are alot of people here who have more experience with printing, but when I have produced a 4 color brochure, I've done everything in CMYK. Then I chose a pure color like Cyan for the logo and told the printer that the Cyan is pantone xxxx spot color.

Hope this helps.

WordStyleinc.com

[amoore]

This is not my area of expertise, so I assume someone will correct me if I'm wrong.

Each spot color ink is made from a specific pigment recipe so any competent printer can mix the color and get the same results. Theoretically, a printer in New Jersey and his competitor in California will both produce the same bluish teal when mixing PMS 321.

CMYK (aka process color, aka full color, aka 4-color) uses some combination of cyan, magenta, yellow and black dots to create the perception of color. Look at a color section in your Sunday newspaper through a magnifying glass and you'll see the dots. Some spot colors can be reasonably matched in CMYK, and others can't be translated into CMYK at all.

You use CMYK when you have a range of colors as in a color photograph. You use spot color when you must have some portion of your image exactly match color X.

You can also produce very elegant and attractive materials using black and a single spot color. With judicious use of grayscale and screens or tints, you can create the impression of rich color for a lot less money than if you were using CMYK.

Sometimes the choice to go spot + black is economic, and sometimes it's artistic.