Print glossary

What is process color in printing?

Definition

Process color is color printed by combining the four process inks, cyan, magenta, yellow and black, as tiny dots of each, rather than with a pre-mixed spot ink; it is how photos and most full-color print are made.

What it means for your file

Every tint is a percentage of one or more of the four inks, each printed from its own plate or print head. In Illustrator and InDesign each swatch’s color type is either process or spot, and on a CMYK-only job every swatch should be process. Process inks can’t match every Pantone color, especially bright oranges, greens and blues, metallics and fluorescents.

For the pre-mixed alternative, see Pantone and spot colors. To find CMYK values for a screen color, use the RGB to CMYK converter.

An example

A full-color flyer with photos prints in four-color process: the press lays down cyan, magenta, yellow and black, and a brand red is built from, say, 100% magenta and 90% yellow. A two-color business card in black and one Pantone red uses a spot ink instead, so the same red is a single ink from its own plate, mixed to match the swatch book.

A common mistake

Leaving a Pantone swatch set to spot in a file that prints in CMYK only. Depending on the printer’s setup, it can be converted automatically to a color you didn’t expect, output as a plate nobody uses, or drop out. Before exporting, check the Swatches panel and set every color to process unless the job really prints that ink.

How to fix it

If your printer sent the file back saying “Convert the spot colors to CMYK,” the fix page has the step-by-step way to do it yourself, and a fixed price if you’d rather have it done.

How to fix “Convert the spot colors to CMYK”

Free tool for thisConvert RGB or HEX to CMYK, free HEX, RGB and CMYK both ways, with a note on whether the color will print as it looks on screen, and the right blacks.