Fortunately, life has been enriched and endowed with wonderful colors. There are colors with different shades and tonalities. There are objects which singularly possesses that color alone. Such that these colors have even become identified by its association to the object it is particularly present.
Blue for instance does not encompass the sea alone. There is sky blue, turquoise, lapis lazuli, azure, Prussian, cobalt, ultramarine and so on.
Colors play an important part in enriching our perception of the world. Colors visually stimulate us and attracts. This aesthetic element can be found everywhere. From clothes to prints, colors give things more vibrancy and energy,
Four color printing recreates the vibrancy of images captured in our designs unto prints. Printing uses four color printing, integrated in its printing processes, to reproduce the images and give it integrity.
Four color printing achieves a range of colors and shades using only four colors or inks in the printing process. Also known as CMYK color process printing, the abbreviation stands for the colors of inks used, namely cyan, magenta, yellow and black. Black is represented by the letter K for it is coined as the key color.
In order for four color printing to capture a spectrum of colors, the colors are printed separately and in varying degrees of saturation. Such that colors or inks will be layered atop another in order to recreate that colors of the image on file.
Black is used alongside these colors for it provides better contrasts and helps define the outline of the image. In other words, the colors or the image would appear muddy or messy without the color black.
Added to this, black saves a significant amount of ink in printing. If the three remaining colors were the only ones used to produce the black color, then it would take a lot of ink just to create the intense color black.
Now, four color printing is available to all print materials and is enjoyed by many. Colors are then manipulated to produce varying effects that can be striking, pleasing to the eyes or both.
There are color schemes and techniques used by graphic artists or designers in order to construct an artistic, aesthetic effect using colors.
There are dark on light color scheme that uses dark colored text on a light background. The opposite of this is the light on dark color scheme that uses light colored text against a dark background.
The dark on light color scheme is commonly seen and is almost a default way of printing, like in newspaper prints and the like. The light on dark color scheme produces a more striking appeal as the whole background is submerged in color.
Other color formats include identifying warm colors and cool colors. Warm colors such as yellows, oranges and reds, communicate and give off various impressions that can suggest excitement, empathy and passion.
Cool colors like blues, purples and greens emit a relaxing and calm undertone to any images. Knowing how to place colors beside or along each other also helps create a 3 dimensional effect on your prints. This is because cool colors appear to recede and contract, bringing the warm colors forefront.
Four color printing provides a lot of possibilities for graphic designers and for those who wish to wield prints and gain optimum results. With four color printing, you can easily manipulate and obtain the colors you want. It does not only create colorful prints, but it embodies a number of values that helps you reach out and communicate to your audience.
Printing companies go at lengths to measure your designs and files that it will print as closely as possible to the original ones. Through proofs, printing companies review if there are major flaws in your files.
Proofing your files, as some companies offer for free, is the job of experts which will study the details of your design. They try to see which problems might occur if you chose to print your design, this may be any of the following:
? which colors might come out drastically different
? which images may become blurry
? which images might be cut out
? which text may not be legible
Hence, knowing how to fully understand the requirements of a full color printing job just might put you back on the right track and avoid problems. Such delays would only cause you too much time, worry and effort.
Needless to say, you can take advantage of four color printing by following certain steps and measure. A good design will not print well, even with four color printing, if you do not know the most traps and pitfalls committed by many amateurs.
Using Scanned Photographs
Even when you scan your photographs, sometimes these files don't come out the way you want them. The best you can do is to brush them up with a few strokes from design software.
Nevertheless, it is best to save such scanned files or images in tif or eps formats. Such formats help retain the original colors of your photographs and preserve the clarity or sharpness.
Also, keep in mind to use a resolution of 300dpi or dots per inch. This gives your pictures a smooth and sharp quality.
Web-based Images
Lifting or borrowing images from other websites are not always printable. Most images you find on the web are only set at 72dpi which would look very blurry or fuzzy if your tried printing it.
Your photographs, no matter how colorful, will lose definition. This means that lines, contrasts and shapes of objects will not be reflected on print. Colors suffer too because without high resolution, colors will not blend well and will look scattered.
Upsampling
You cannot come up with a good print if you have low resolution. Even if you stubbornly saved a 72dpi image to 300dpi without changing the dimensions, it won't produce quality images. Also called upsampling, this shortcut would only prove useless.
Printing Text Colorful Text
Fonts should always be saved at 400dpi and yes it's at a higher resolution. This is necessary for it to be printed well. This makes you text sharper and easier to read.
If you want a colorful font, there's almost no limit to it. However, you may only want to have colored texts or fonts set at a minimum of 12pt. or else, there are chances smaller, colorful fonts won't print as accurately.
Also, if you want to print white font against a dark background, make sure that it is also set at a minimum of 12pt. The dark background might dominate over your fonts and would prove of little or no use at all to read.
We all need colors, but in order to do so, we need files and images that would be printed well in the first place. For if we do not have the right files, everything will be compromised and all that effort spent will have been for nothing.
Make sure to consult with your professional printing company and see how you could improve your design, images and colors. Make four color printing an experience you can enjoy by remembering these tips.
Both Joey & Jennifer are contributors for EditorialToday. The above articles have been edited for relevancy and timeliness. All write-ups, reviews, tips and guides published by EditorialToday.com and its partners or affiliates are for informational purposes only. They should not be used for any legal or any other type of advice. We do not endorse any author, contributor, writer or article posted by our team.
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