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Vectorizing Full Color Images:įull color images are images that may contain a multitude of colors, color blends and gradients, highlights and shadows. Generally printers have a limit on how many spot colors they can use on their printing. Spot color printing may cost less than the 4 color CMYK process if you can limit the printing to 1, 2 or 3 colors. One advantage of spot colors is that you can select the color you want from a swatch book prior to printing and you can be sure that the printed item will be the same exact color because these are pre-mixed inks using an exact formula. Check with your provider to see what color mode is required.įile recreated using a limited amount of spot colors If this is the case, the file can be re-created using a limited amount of spot colors. promotional item printers) can use the CMYK full color process and they may request a spot color vector file. This is a raster image composed of a multitude of different color pixels. Changing the eye to three spot colors only green, black and white, will change it from a multi-dimensional looking image to a "flat" looking image (figure 3)įigure 2: Zoomed into the horse's eye. I've zoomed in on the horse's eye (Figure 2) so that you can see how the CMYK raster file has a multitude of different color pixels, when zoomed out, you see a realistic image. This type of file is best if printed using the CMYK color process where the 4 inks Cyan Magenta Yellow and Black are "blended" together to achieve the full color spectrum. it in fact has hundreds of colors and would be implausible to print with spot colors because with the spot color process, a different ink is applied for each different color section. orange shirt, brown horse, green eyes, etc.
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Photographs are raster files composed of a multitude of pixels (dots) of different colors.Īlthough the original raster file above (figure 1) may seem to have just a few colors e.g. Types of files that should be printed with the CMYK process are full color photographs, or photo-like images with many blends and colors. Here are samples of Full Color photographs changed to limited color vector drawings. View Pantone Solid (Spot) Color Swatchbook Sample below of the apple changed to 3 SPOT colors: Sample below of an apple separated into the four CMYK plates: Depending on the original, Images with many color blends and continuous tones can look considerably different when changing from CMYK to Spot color. Running the press less than four times may reduce printing costs.
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If you want to save on printing costs - and your design won't suffer by changing it into less colors - we can redraw your bitmap images as vector graphics using a limited amount of solid SPOT colors. When printing, raster color images can be separated only into the four CMYK color plates (unless they are specifically prepared otherwise) and the press will have to run 4 times. View Pantone Solid (Spot) Color Swatchbook Changing an image from CMYK to Solid Spot color Changing an image that uses full color range to an image using a limited amount of colors In this instance the printing press runs only three times reducing printing costs. To print a black, brown and red image black, brown and red pre-mixed inks are used. In simple terms Spot colors are pre-mixed inks and are applied only to the area assigned for each particular color. The press runs 4 times to apply each ink individually. To print ANY multicolor image the same four color inks are used. CMYK vs SPOT Color Separation CMYK Color Printing ProcessĬMYK (also referred to as full color, process color, 4 color), uses 4 different color inks (always the same colors: Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Black) blended together to achieve the full color spectrum.