A whole lot of confusion exists about which color to send out our work for print - whether Spot or Process color. I will try to explain everything about them so that you can easily make your choice while creating your designs
Process Color
Process color is made of the combination of Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, and Black (CMYK) inks in a certain percentage. Combining various percentage of the CYMKs will produce various types of colors. Process color is limited in the range of colors. It is a four color print method used for works that require multi colors. It is used when the accuracy of color is not a serious consideration as there could be a variation of colors when moving from one printer to another. They are used for reproduction of photographs, decorative elements (borders and graphics) and when many colors are required. They are cheaper to print than spot colors
Spot Color
Also called solid color, is created without dots or screen. There are basic eighteen colors from which we can mix and obtain various spot colors in the Pantone Matching System (Pantone metallic and Pastel Colors are also part of the system). Spot colors are necessary when few colors are specified
Pantone Matching System is the most widely used. The mixing produces a unique color. Each of the colors has a unique name or number. They also have a suffix U or C meaning Coated or Uncoated paper. Coated is good when we are printing on a glossy surface like magazines and newspapers. Uncoated is good for matte printing like brochures and letterheads. Spot colors appear bright and clean and color accuracy is maintained. They are mostly used for corporate identity and logos.
It is necessary for a logo designer to produce your logo in Spot, CMYK, and RGB to enable you to have a consistent look as you move the logo across various color profiles
You can access your Spot color in Adobe design software like Photoshop and Illustrator.
For Illustrator, go to Window > Swatches. Select the drop-down menu at the right-hand end.
Select Open Swatch Library. Click Color Books. You will be able to access a whole variety of Pantone color and Spot colors options
In Photoshop, you can use the drop-down in the Swatches panel to access it.
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