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Color Basics
Color
With color, what you see is not necessarily what you get, at least in printing. Our eyes see RGB (red, green, blue) when looking at television screens or computer monitors. When we print on paper, we cannot reproduce all the colors we see in the RGB spectrum. We use four process color inks--cyan, magenta, yellow, and black (CMYK) to closely represent the colors we see on a screen. Spot ink colors (special made color inks) can be used in some situations to make up colors that cannot be matched using the process colors.
When selecting colors in your files, you have the option of choosing the colors as RGB or as CMYK, you should select CMYK. We can convert the colors using photo or color editing applications such as Adobe Photoshop or Illustrator. Since there are more colors we see as RGB than can be printed as CMYK, a color shift in images may occur when printing. If color is critical, make sure you request a digital or contract proof.
The PANTONE® color book is an excellent tool to select spot and process colors. You can use one of our ink books or purchase your own from PANTONE’s web site at www.pantone.com. All colors printed on our offset presses will match the colors listed in the PANTONE books. Our digital press prints in CMYK, Purdue gold (PMS1245), and black.
Purdue Standard Colors
Purdue spot gold colors are PMS 1245 for uncoated stocks, PMS 132 for coated stocks, PMS 8960 for metallic gold and 837 for gold foil imprints. Our digital press spot gold is suitable for PMS 1245 or 132. A color similar to the 8960 can be printed on the digital press in 4/color process.
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