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How Color Printing Works |
Written by charen smith
Friday, 01 August 2008
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In order to get the most out of your print marketing materials, or really any kind of printing needs you have, it's a good idea to know what's processes are use to create your marketing materials. Full color printing has come a long way since the first days of color photographs. The methods today are so refined that in many cases in photography it's impossible to tell which photo is the original and which was copied. Color printing has been shown to increase the rate of reading and retention in various publications. Studies have shown that the use of color increases readership by at least 40%, according to the National Advertising Association. Here are the basics you need to know about the two most common color models: the RGB color model and the CMYK color model. We'll also touch on an up-and-coming model: the six-color model. RGB Colors Color reproduction is based on the way our eyes see color. White light contains all the wavelengths of visible light and has three primary colors. These colors are red, green and blue and are referred to as RGB in the printing world. RGB colors are known as additive primaries because the lights of these colors produce white light when they are combined. You can combine the RGB colors in various ways: more red and blue with less green equals purple, for example. This combining of colors is the idea behind full color printing. Humans basically see color in three layers, and the eyes combine these layers to give our brain the colors we perceive. Color printing presses work in much the same way because the color inks act as filters. The filters subtract portions of white light (the whole of RGB colors) to create the color needed. CMYK Colors This is the most common type of printing most printers use and it's typically known as four-color printing. The four ink colors used to create a spectrum of colors are cyan, magenta, yellow and black. A mistake that is often made when submitting artwork to printers is not converting the images to the CMYK color space. This conversion is needed so that a separate printing plate can be made for each color. For more info on color space, check out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Color_space. CMYK is opposite from RGB in that instead of additive colors, this color model works on the principle of subtractive colors, because the inks subtract brightness from white. In RGB, white is created from combining all the colors, and black is the absence of color. In CMYK, it's the opposite - black is the created from combining colors and white is the absence of color. Six-Color Printing An emerging color model that is being used more and more is the six-color process printing model. Genesis Printing Company (www.genesisprinting.com) offers the six-color printing process, which provides a bigger spectrum of colors than can be made by CMYK printing. Orange and green are added to the four-color model to create the six colors used. This process allows the addition of fluorescents or special finishes, like aqueous coating, on printed materials. You only need six-color printing when you have a custom color that you need to be matched on all your print materials, or if you want to create special effects. The six-color is model is basically the same as the others in terms of separation and process; it just adds two more colors to the mix. For comments and inquiries about the article visit: Color Printing Article Source: http://www.ArticleBlast.com |
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