The colour print impact for your business

When trying to keep your marketing budget in check, it might be tempting to skimp on your printing and choose simple black and white over colour print. But, before you do, consider the following:

Colour printing makes your material more eye catching and therefore more likely to be read. have more clarity, accurately represents your product, which helps if you're a retailer to emphasise appearance, strengthens brand recognition and comes across much more professional.

What is colour printing?

While there are many techniques for colour printing, the most common method used for commercial printing is four-colour-process printing.

This method uses four different inks: three primary colours, plus black. The three primary colours are cyan (a bright blue), magenta (a reddish purple) and yellow, which, together with black, go by the acronym CMYK.

Put simply, these four colours are combined to closely reproduce the full range of colours contained in the photographs or images being printed - a bit like how pre-school kids mix yellow and blue paint to make green (only much more sophisticated).

Spotlight on spot colour

Another common technique is 'spot' colour printing, where just one ink, or multiple inks that are not in the CMYK spectrum, are used. Generally, spot-colour inks are designed to print alone, rather than to blend with other inks on the paper.

The colours available are nearly unlimited, ranging from subtle pastels and intense fluorescents to reflective metallics. Spot colour is ideal for jobs that don't require full-colour imagery, such as business cards and stationery.

Preparing files for colour printing

When designing your company flyer or brochure on computer, the colour images you see are usually in a format known as RGB (a combination of red, green and black). But, as explained above, standard four-colour-process printing reproduces these images using a completely different set of colours, known as CMYK.

Before sending your job to the printer, convert your images to CMYK. Doing this will allow you to tweak any images that don't convert well and look different to the RGB originals. Some colours are said to be "out of the CMYK gamut" and may need enhancing in Photoshop first if they're to print accurately.

Most commercial printers don't have the time to adjust your images once they're converted to CMYK, so that's why it pays to do it yourself first and make sure you're getting exactly the results you're after.

Colour me happy

With colour printing technology evolving every day to include cheaper options - such as four-colour-digital printing - slick, eye-catching, full-colour marketing material is within every business's reach. Talk to a printing professional today about how a colour print can brighten your business future.