2-3COLOUR SPACES

4-5PANTONE AND SPOT COLOUR

6TINTS AND TRANSPARENCIES

7MONOTONE // DUOTONE

8 - 9PRINT PROCESSES

10-11PRINT FINISHES

12-13T-SHIRT PRINTING

14-15STOCK // SUBSTRATE

16COMMERCIAL COSTING

CMYK, sometimes referred to as process colour or four colour, is the basic colour system used in design for work that will eventually be printed. CMYK refers to the four colour inks it uses: cyan, magenta, yellow and key (black) which when mixed together at different percentages can make a variety of different colours. The CMYK models works by masking certain colours on a (typically) white background; for this reason it is classed as a ‘subtractive’ model, as it is ‘subtracting’ brightness from the white

A good example of seeing how CMYK works is on large scale prints such as billboards and posters on the sides of buildings; when you get close up to it, you can see it is made up of lots of little coloured dots ( coloured C,M,Y or K), but when you are stood away from it, the human eye optically mixes these so that we see it as one solid colour. Most printed items, are printed using CMYK unless they have very specific colour needs that cannot be reached with this colour space.

(or whatever colour stock you may be printing on.) Seperate colours spaces reproduce a limited amount of colours from within the overall spectral colour gamut which depicts every colour that is visible to the human eye, however, due to how CMYK works, it can not reproduce a lot of those colours and some, when printed can end up looking quite dull and de-saturated.

The RGB colour system cannot be used for print as it doesn’t work with the mixture of inks like CMYK; it works by mixing coloured light (red, green and blue) together, when all used at their full percentage, it makes white, and is referred to as an additive colour system. The main use for RGB is to display digital images on electronic products such as TV’s and computers, however, it was still used before the invention of electronic products, in the theory of human colour perception.

A lot of graphic design is done on a screen and then sent to print, this gives us a clear example of how RGB can limit us. Programmes such as photoshop work best in the RGB colour mode, as this is the default that it automatically works with, therefore when we have designed something, if we forget to convert it to CMYK before sending it to print, it is easy to notice the drastic colour changes because when a colour is outside the CMYK gamut, it is simply substituted for a ‘best-guess- replacement.

The RGB colour space can reproduce approximately 70% of the colours in the spectral gamut that can be percieved by the human eye. Unfortunately, as RGB cannot be used for print it limits us to the CMYK colour space which as previously men-tioned is a lot more restricted than the RGB space.

Spot colours are used in graphic design to ensure that, when printed, you get a particular colour. The pantone system allocates a unique reference number to each hue and shade of colour so that communication between the designer and the printed is easier, as you don’t have to show them exactly which colour you want, you can simply give them the reference number. Pantone PMS systems also include special colours such as hexachrome and metallics. Pantone colour guides also represent how a colour will appear on different types of stock i.e. coated or uncoated as the same colour may appear different on each stock stock; it has 4 books for each of the following; uncoated (U), coated (C), euro coated (EC) and matte (M).

PANTONE GUIDESPantone Solid - A range of solid metallic, pastel and process colours.Pantone Pastels - A range of flat, solid but very pale colours.Pantone Hexachrome - 6 process colours - adds green and orange to CMYK.Pantone Metallics - A range of over 300 special metalllic colours including gold and silver.

Spot colours are mainly used when a certain colour that the designer, or the client wants is outside the range or gamut of the CMYK printing process, for example some large brands have certain colours trademarked to them so that no other brand can really use it such as the red that Coca Cola use.There is also the fact that CMYK cannot reproduce metallic colours, therefore if this sort of colour is wanted in a design it is impossible to get it without using a spot colour.Another benefit of spot colours is the fact that it is one solid colour, it isn’t made up of lots of halftone dots so it looks a lot more dignified.Spot colours can also, sometimes, help with costing, for example, if you are send-ing something to a printer to be printed CMYK but you are only using two colours; you are then paying for the use of for inks instead of just two, whereas if you used spot colours, you would only be paying for two. This can also be a negative i.e. if you use over 4 spot colours etc.

4 Spot-colours 1, metallic spot colour.

The inks used in CMYK can be printed in increments of 10% to create around 15,000 differents ‘tints’, which can benefits designers if they have been given a limited colour pallette to work with as they can probably get away with using tints within those colours. One thing to note when using tints with CMYK, is that when they’re over 90% or below 10%, they may not print accurately due to ‘dot gain.’

Although tints allow designers to use more colours, if you are using a spot colour tint, it is classed as another ink and therefore will increate the price of printing. One way around this, is to use transparcies. The selection of coloured traingles at the top of this page are exactly the same as the ones at the bottom; it demonstrates that, one a white background a percentage transparency, can look almost the same as a

percentage tint. However, it also shows how different transparencies can look when put on a different coloured background, so it will depend on what effect you want on your design i.e. solid colour, or transparent colour, as to how you use these techniques. Transparencies are particularly effective in one colour designs because you layer them up to make more shades.

Monotone refers to images which only use colour. Multi-tone images (duotone, tritone etc.) start off as a monotone image then have one or more colours added to it.The images about are examples of monotone; the photograph is a good example of how dramatic a one colour image can be, depending on the background or stock.

The illustration shows how effective a intricate illustration can be in just one colour. The images below are examples of the more popular duotone process. A duotone image is made up of two colours, one of which is commonly black. On photoshop you can alter the curves of

each to highlight different parts. The print on the left isn’t a common example of duotone, however as it is only using two colours, it is still valid. The photograph was simply taken into photoshop, converter to grayscale and then duotone with red and green. Duotone works best if there is a balanced curve.

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Foil blocking (also referred to as foil stamp, heat stamp or foil emboss) works by pressing a coloured foil onto a substrate via a heated die. The process allows a designer to add a ‘shiny’, foil finish to specific design elements such as highlighted or important text.

Spot UV works by applying an ultraviolet varnish to just certain parts of a design (as apposed to full-bleed UV). It then dries by exposure to UV radiation in order to create a coating that is glossier than the rest of the design.

Thermography is a print finish that produces a raised area, commonly used on lettering, by fusing thermographic powder to a design in an oven. It gives work a very tactile finish and makes a 2D design somewhat more interactive.

An emboss or deboss is a design that is stamped into a substrate to produce a decorative raised or indented surface. Sometimes a coloured foil is used to add colour to the design, however, it is usually done ‘blind’ to add a more tactile element to the design.

Die cutting is just one method of removing portions of stock to create different shapes or highlight parts of a design. Die cutting uses a steel die to cut away a specified section, it is mainly used as a decorative element to a print job.

Laser cutting is another method of removing stock, but as the name suggests, it uses a laser to cut away a design. Laser cutting can produce more intricate designs however, the laser can sometimes burn the edges of part thats been cut out, depending on the substrate.

Silk screening has always been a popular method of transferring graphics onto t-shirts, however, advances in technology means we can now tranfers images onto fabric using a common consumer quality inkjet printer with special papers etc. Although this development means printing onto garments has become more accessible, it doesn’t mean silk screening is obsolete, as this is still probably the highest quality way of printing onto shirts. The disadvantage of some of the other techniques are things such as pixelation on digital images, whereas, you don’t have this problem with silk screening as it is one solid colour on a mesh screen. However, for one-off designs or very small quantity digital is probably best as silk screen can be relatively time consuming and expensive.

Coated paper refers to stock that has got a coating (usually clay) on one side, or both. It is available in a gloss, silk (or satin) or matte finish. It is sometimes referred to as ‘art paper’ because it is suited to jobs that require a finely detailed finish, it generally produces sharper, brighter images than uncoated because the ink doesn’t soak into the stock and bleed, it is usually cheaper than uncoated as-well because it is more widely available. Coated or ‘art’ paper, is used to print such things as brochures, leaflets and posters.

Uncoated paper refers to paper that has no form of coating on it what-so-ever. As it doesn’t have a coating, it is much more textured and almost rough compared to coated stock. Although it doesn’t have a coating, it is still available in many different finishes, colours and weights. It is much more absorbent than coated paper and for this reasons the images won’t be as vivid. Good quality uncoated stock is commonly used for business stationary and it is the most used stock in laser printers, as some coated stocks may melt in them. In some designs, coated and uncoated stocks are used together; in books etc. it is a nice effect to have two different textures of stock, and sometimes an uncoated stock may add elegance and sohphistications because it isn’t used as much.

Examples of pricing in industry, taking into account the printing process used and how many were produced etc.

Description:A ‘save the date’ card. Designed and pro-duced by the actual people getting married, therefore will have save on design costs.

Quantity produced:150

Stock:French paper mod-tone, gray.

Number of colours:Front: 2 SpotBack: Black

Printing method:Front: Split foundtain silkscreen.Back: Office inkjet.

Production cost:$200 (Approx £121)

Description:Self promotion business cards, meaning they will once again save on designing costs.

Quantity produced:2,000

Stock:300gsm Cardboard

Number of colours:1 foil (black)

Printing method:Foil stamping

Extras:Rounded edges.

Productiong cost: $1,300 (Approx £787)

Description:CD - “Thou shalt have a time machine”.

Quantity produced:1,000

Stock:Fox River 158lb and 80 lb, uncoated.

Number of colours & Printing method:Package: 2 spot colours, Letterpress.Insert: 4-Colour, Digital.CD: 3 Spot colours, Silkscreen.

Production cost:$2,976 (Approx £1803)

Majority of research taken from:

The Production Manual:a graphic design handbook

(AVA)

Designer credits:(In alphabetical order)

Adam IsmailAlyssa and Josh

Devin MacDonaldG-MAN

Jamie StolarskiKeegan OnefootNicola Kraieski

Oh and ahPawel WalkwaiksPowl Goudsmith

Richard Perez / Skinny ShipsShaw NielsenSteve LoftisWe are start

Thankyou