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Thread: Help me with Spot Colors

  1. #1
    Linux + BeOS = ? ? ? ? ? ? connect2nikhil's Avatar
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    Help me with Spot Colors

    Hi! All,

    I wanted to know, exactly what these Spot Colors are?
    I never went so deep into colors. Other day, one of my clients asked me to use Spot Colors.

    Can some one please explain me what Spot Colors is?
    The process involved with Spot Colors, etc.

    Also can you please explain me something about Process Colors too.

    Your help would be highly regarded.

    Regards,
    NicK
    To design is Human. To Flash is Divine.- Nikhil "NicK" Desai
    Anyone, who stops learning is old, whether at twenty or eighty.
    Anyone, who continues learning stays young.
    The greatest thing in life is to keep learning and stay young. - Henry Ford

  2. #2
    This is less complicated than it sounds:

    First, “Process Color” is the generic term used to describe the printing process that combines small Dots of different colors, yielding your full color image. You might be familiar with the description of “4 color (printing) Process”, or CMYK.

    C = cyan
    M = magenta
    Y = yellow
    K = black


    Second, “Spot Color” simply refers to a color that is predetermined (not a result of the four color combination), a specific ink color. Usually picked from the “Pantone” palate. You should be able to access this in PhotoShop from the color palate window > custom color > from here you choose color palate (“Pantone colors” will be one of several options.

    These two printing processes are often used in combination with one another, giving the designer more control over the final product; e.g. 4 color “Process” used for BG image and “Spot color” used
    for overlaying LOGO.

    For a more detailed description of each process do a “Google” search – you’ll get a more in-depth
    explanation.

    Anybody – please feel free to add, correct, or clarify.

    Regards

  3. #3
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    hothouse is a hotbed of color printing knoweldge... he/she is absolutely right. The only thing I can think to add for clarity if you arent familiar with printing or print design at all is that the CMYK inks are used to make any other color by overlaying a percentage from 0-100 of the ink. Each color, (CMYK) has it's own plate and the page runs through the printer getting one color at a time.
    A spot color is also used for varnishing on printing presses. You can set a spot color to print a shiny part of a piece and not the rest, like a logo or company name or picture.

  4. #4
    Linux + BeOS = ? ? ? ? ? ? connect2nikhil's Avatar
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    Thanks.

    Another Q.. is this usually used by people in print industry or can be used by any designer including Web & Multimedia too.
    To design is Human. To Flash is Divine.- Nikhil "NicK" Desai
    Anyone, who stops learning is old, whether at twenty or eighty.
    Anyone, who continues learning stays young.
    The greatest thing in life is to keep learning and stay young. - Henry Ford

  5. #5
    Senior Member Black_phoenix's Avatar
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    Hi a spot colour is a pre mixed ink found in pantone books

    heres an extreme example pantone 872c is a metalic gold if you were to print a full colour booklet and you wanted a real metalic gold strip at the top you would specify in the document that that was over printed with the "spot colour 872c" this would now make the print job a 5 colour job.

    you can access the pantone colours from photoshop and they will be very close to the real "spot colour" but from my experience they are never exactly the same when printed unless you get chromalins run and get it tweaked by the printer (v costly) i always add spot colours in illustrator or quark, but u can do duotones (2 colour) in phsp specifying spot colours.

    with regard to web and multimedia, what you see on your screen is RGB and you would never be able to make the 872c colour, from red, green and blue.

    you can make some colours eg pantone 032c is basically pure red, thats an easy one

    if u look in photoshop (i'm running 5.5) there is no 872c listed because it cant be produced in photoshop, this also goes for fluorescent colours such as 801, 802, 803, etc

    note: if u are doing alot of print work a pantone book is a must, they are not cheap

    the main time i use pantone colours is for stationery if the client wants an exact colour you can show him/her the pantone book and let them choose the colour from there.

    hope this explains it

    bp

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