mountain photo – Four-Color Printing Defined

<p>Many make the mistake of believing that four-color printing refers to having your materials such as your catalog printing produced in four colors. On the contrary, four-color printing actually means your printer is producing print images that are very near the mountain photo print originals.<br /><br />How do they do that? The paper is run in the printing machine in CMYK. By layering the four colors, many more shades are being produced. As a result, different shades and colors are created that can be perceived by the human eye. Hence, the four color printing process can actually generate tones and blend colors to form a gamut of other colors.<br /><br />But having four-color (full-color) printing also has its ups and downs. Here’s a rundown of what you can expect from four-color printing and the precautions you need to consider in order for you to get the results you want.<br /><br />1- Although four-color printing is accurate, it can only provide you with a limited choice. Even if you have CMYK, it can still only give you enough choices that may not be great with some print jobs. What you can do then is to add a color system &#40;e.g. Pantone Matching System&#41; that can be transferred onto your print materials.<br /><br />The downside is that this can hike up your printing costs for your catalog printing for example, as the process needs to have a very specific ink to be able to produce the quality you want. This special ink will only be used in that particular print job. If you need to print another batch, you have to buy a specific ink again for that next job.<br /><br />2- There’s no exact conversion of RGB to CMYK, as these two systems occupy different spaces in the color spectrum. Therefore, if you have RGB in your prints, you need to convert it first to CMYK as the latter is the only color system that is considered in any print job. This would entail, again, higher costs as the outcome would definitely be significantly different from what you saw in your monitor when you were designing your print catalogs for example.<br /><br />3- There is no white ink with four-color printing. What your printer would do is to create only a somewhat close resemblance to white. Again, this entails a customized print job, which means additional expense for you.<br /><br />On the other hand, four-color printing allows you to put on the coating to enhance your colors and add texture to your prints. By providing a gloss or matte finish, you give your print job more brilliance and elegance that protects your colors from diminishing in time.<br /><br />Ask your printing company for more assistance. They can provide you answers if you happen to consider four-color printing for your print jobs.</p>