Colour - CMYK

What is CMYK?

The CMYK color model is a subtractive color model, based on the CMY color model, used in color printing, and is also used to describe the printing process itself. CMYK refers to the four ink plates used in some color printing: cyan, magenta, yellow, and key. 

Do we print in CMYK?

Yes, all of our presses are CMYK based.

Can we print in black and white?

We can print jobs that are made up of black text only. There is no special pricing for this.

We can not print in white - meaning that any parts of the artwork that are white are effectively not printed. This means that white can not be used on a stock such as Kraft. (Any white parts on this stock would essentially be left brown)

Can we print in special colours?

Special colours can be called Spot Colours, RGB or Pantone.

We don't print in these though you can find more information on them by clicking on the words above.

If a client wishes to print using these colours, they would need to convert the colour into CMYK. It will not be an exact match however will mean that we can do the job for them and the colour will be as close to expected as possible.

How can a client convert a colour to CMYK?

They should be able to find any pantone colour on Pantone's site here.

They are all named with a number - for example Pantone 2347 C. After finding or searching for this, they can click through to find all conversion values. We are looking for the CMYK values.

If the client sets their artwork up in these colours, it will be the closest match to their pantone colour.

What happens if a client doesn't provide their artwork in CMYK?

The colours would be converted at the proofing stage and may look different to what the client requires.