Four colour process is one of the most widely used print methods today. It provides a consistently high quality output at a competitive price.

4 Colour Process

This is the most common system used for producing full colour print. The process gets its name from the four inks used - Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and blacK - or CMYK for short. The inks are translucent, meaning the four primary colours can be merged and overprinted to produce a wide range of different colours. The K refers to Black as the (key) colour. Read more about colours.

The four colours (CMYK) are run through the press separately laying the Black, Cyan, Magenta and Yellow in that order to comply with colour management standard ISO 12647. The four colours overlay each other, combining to produce the final full colour image.

The CMYK model can produce millions of colours, but it cannot produce every single colour. For example, a printed sheet might require lettering in a metallic gold. This special colour (called a spot colour) cannot be achieved using the four colour process. In this case it would be necessary to create a fifth plate to print the required gold colour.

Due to the cost of additional printing plates and special inks, a graphic designer will usually avoid problematic colours or match them to the closest CMYK substitute before being sending the artwork to a printer. However a fifth plate is sometimes unavoidable for a print run. The most common instance is a company logo which contains a spot colour, and therefore demands an extra plate to maintain consistency.