FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS ABOUT PRINT WORK.

I asked for a XYZ print colour, why did you send me a different colour?

It is IMPOSSIBLE to exactly match a colour displayed on a colour monitor with a colour created by mixing printing inks. How colour works.

COMPUTERS, video, tv and the eye work in RGB (red, green & blue). These are called: additive colours.

PRINT works in CYMK (cyan, yellow, magenta & black). These are called: subtractive colours.

The additive colour process and the subtractive colour process are two very different operations, with very different outcomes.

For PRINT work, the image needs to be in CYMK at 300 pixels per inch - versus WEB work at RGB 72 pixels per inch.

We design in QuarkXpress, THE layout program for print work. Quark uses low-resolution images linked to the original file.

We send you layout options to choose from, but since most people don’t have Quark we translate the layout into Adobe Acrobat, a program that everybody has and still will accept the same layout.

Now, to be able to email this to you, Acrobat needs to change the image into RGB and VÒILA you have a strong colour shift! But our original file will render it properly.

Similarily, images send over the Internet will have a colour shift.

AT THE PRINTER:

Hue of colours not only varies from printer to printer but also gives different results on the same machine at different times. Blue and red are the hardest to render precisely.

For most print work it won't be that big of a shift, it will be close enough, but if you are looking for precise and hard to render vibrant colours you need to go for spot colour and that is expensive, add a min. $ 300 to the job.

And if you like real lustrous colours, as you see in those big company ads, you need Pantone or Focaltone spot colour. Now the job becomes very expensive and the turnaround time is lengthened.

Reason: It takes a special machine with a separate ink vessel, which, together with the whole printing press, needs thorough cleaning before adding the new spot colour.

A SHORT EXPLANATION OF HOW COLOUR WORKS.

Subtractive color versus additive color

Colour can be created using two basic methods: by mixing colorants (such as oil paints and printing inks), and by mixing coloured lights.

Colour created by mixing colorants is called subtractive colour; colour created by mixing coloured lights, like the colour we see on television sets and computer monitors, is called additive colour.

The additive colour process and the subtractive colour process are two very different operations, with very different outcomes.

Colour created by mixing beams of light will look entirely different than colour created by mixing printing inks.

When you mix the three additive primary colours (red, green, and blue light), you get white light.

When you mix the subtractive primary colors (in printing inks, the subtractive primary colours are cyan, magenta, and yellow), you get a nearly black colour.

Because these two methods of creating colour are fundamentally different, it is impossible to exactly match a colour displayed on a colour monitor with a colour created by mixing printing inks.

Subtractive color and printing

When coloured paint or ink is applied to a reflective surface, such as canvas or paper, light passes through the ink and is reflected off the surface. The pigment, that is, the solid particles in the ink that provide the colour, absorbs a portion of the light, while the rest is reflected.

For example, when light strikes the surface of a canvas that is covered with blue paint, the blue pigment absorbs the portion of the light other than blue; the remainder of the light – the blue light – is not absorbed, and is instead reflected back to our eyes. Voilá, we see blue. Because we see all but the light that is absorbed – that is, subtracted – this type of color is called color by subtraction, or subtractive color.

According to the subtractive color theory, the three subtractive primary colors can be mixed in different combinations to produce nearly every color. Mixing equal amounts of the primary colors will, in theory, produce black. However, because of impurities in printing inks, mixing them in fact produces a dark, muddy color. Consequently, black is added to the three primary colors to darken shadows and to provide a true black for type and line art. Cyan (also called process blue), magenta (also called process red), yellow, and black are called process colors and are the colors used in four-color process printing, also called full-colour printing.