How to work with process colour when designing for print.
CMYK - Four colour - Subtractive Colour - when overlapped, they subtract the colour which creates Key (Dark Grey/Black - can be added to create a stronger black colour)
CMYK are process colours
They are transparent colours, which can be overlapped.
In the 4 colour printing process, each colour is printed in different places and once they overlap they achieve the full colour print.
When working with colour, the best background interface to have is a medium grey, as the neutral colour does not affect or interfere with your colour work.
Applying colour through illustrator.
Managing the swatch pallette/creating the swatch pallette
To create your own swatch, you will need to first empty the default swatch files, by selecting them manually or using the tool bar.
You should be left with no fill, black, white and registration (for printer's marks).
To add new colours to the swatch pallette, first open the colour pallette to show both the spectrum, and the colour mixer.
Once you have created the desired colour, the drop down menu will confirm 'create new swatch', and you will be shown the name, percentages and the colour mode to confirm before the swatch is added to the swatch pallette.
Here the swatches have been shown as a list, which makes it easier to identify colours.
Colours can also be added to the swatch palette as you go along when creating artwork.
Clicking on 'add used colours' will add it to the list of swatches.
Unlike the original swatches added, the new used colours will be displayed and represented as global colours. This is significant because global colours, unlike the other swatches (identified in the swatches by the white triangle and grey box) are linked to the artwork, and do not need to be selected in the art board to be changed, which is more convenient, particularly for complex pieces.
Global swatches also allow you to create tints of the same colour in the colour palette, instead of showing the CMYK spectrum, it keeps the percentages you have confirmed already.
This then allows you to create tints of the colour and add them to the swatch list, so that variations and tweaks can be made from the swatch menu.
How to work with colour for print with spot colours
As opposed to process colour, which is mixed, a spot colour is ready mixed colour and not made up of CMYK.
Spot colour is appropriate for use for cheaper print runs, as it means they printer already has the colour and does not have to go through the 4 colour print process. Another reason is that because a spot colour is ready mixed, it provides the finished prints with a consistent colour. An example of a spot colour is the Sainsburys logo, and the Heinz Baked Bean label, which is mass produced and requires a consistent finish.
The spot colour model used in this country is called the Pantone model, although there are others internationally such as TruMatch or FOCOLTONE. The colour books contain a series of pre mixed colours, which are identified by a unique code which would be known to the printer so that the exact colour is printed.
In Illustrator the Pantone swatches can be found from opening search library > Colour books.
The main books to use are solid coated/uncoated.
You can search for a specific colour using the toolbar, and typing in the reference number from the colour book. Once clicked, the colour will automatically be added to the swatch list.
As with global swatches, tints can be created from spot colours and added to the swatch list.
When saving groups of swatches, you need to select the drop down menu and choose between either Save as AI, or Save as ASE.
Save as AI means the swatch file will only be opened within Illustrator software. This should be saved within the swatch library within the Illustrator files.
Save as ASE means that the swatch file is transferrable to other Adobe software such as InDesign or Photoshop, for the purpose of consistency within work. These should be saved along with the work you are completing, and not in the Illustrator swatches file.
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