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CMYK- Process Colours

CMYK are process colours, used for the printing process. 

MYK colour or 4 Colour/ subtractive model - works with an absence of colour with transparent inks designed for printing on paper and combining to create colours.

In Industry CMYK is referred to as PROCESS COLOURS.

Print is CMYK: Subtractive colour - (Used for print only.)

Web is RGB: an additive colour model- (Used for screen only.)

CMYK's all combine to make the Key (black). A kind of muddy brown, still need some actual black to make it into a full K100% black. 

Colours are overlaid in the print process to create a coloured image.

• Cyan
• Magenta
• Yellow 
• Key

Once added together they will form an off black colour, you need to add black to get a pure colour. 

During the print process the colours mix on the page, each one of these colours is added separately to make the colours more defined and accurate black is added. 

RGB scale is for web based design

CMYK is for print 

SETTING UP ILLUSTRATOR DOCUMENT

• Create new document
• Chose the cmyk colour mode for use with print
• cmyk is the default setting on Illustator
• The main ways to apply colour to an artwork on illustrator is in the swatches palette and the colour palette.

It is best to work with a Neutral grey colour when working for colour specific print.Here is how to change the background colour when using the new Illustrator, as it doesn't influence colour choice.

Neutral grey is the best colour as a backdrop for colour specific work, often in industry and professional studies, a neutral grey is used as it's not as overpowering as black and white. You can change this from Illustrator>Preferences>User interface

Pre set swatches are limited, it is always better to start a new one with the colour that you plan on using within your work.
Create new swatch library
Delete swatches existing> palette menu >Select all unused > Delete
Create new colour palette > colour pallet menu> show options
Cmyk colour slider> mix percentages with slider > create new swatch

Pallete

Swatch Pallete

SWATCH PALETTE
How to use the swatch palette 
Select swatches and delete existing swatches, so that your own swatches can be created and not confused with already existing ones. 
Click on the option to delate all unused swatches, it will usually keep black white and a Grey palette.
Registration often has a crosshair or in the small list view has a black colour, not to be confused with black, K100%. Registration is used for manually placing crop marks/fold lines etc.
When printing C M Y K. Registration marks are applied by the printers on each colour layer, Cyan and Magenta each have their own registration marks.

If you want to make Crop marks or anything else which could be used in commercial work use the registration colour, which will exist in every colour pallet on every printer. This bUtton is the one with the circle in it.

Creating a new swatch 

Global Swatches and Tints 
Another way in which you can add a swatch is by going into the selection and clicking add swatches this will add all of the colours from the art board into the swatch list. these type of swatches have triangle in them meaning that are global colours, This means that the box is checked when checking the colours.
When you apply a Global Swatch, you establish a link between artwork which as the colour and the swatch, Meaning any swatch which has been applied with that specific swatch can be changed without selecting everything which has that colour. For example if you have created a complicated piece of artwork, then you can change it more easily. All you have to do to create this is click the Global button on the swatch info. 
You can also create tints of that specific colour with a Global Swatch. 

• You can change your view options from the swatch options. I found the best way to do this was to select "Small list view" as you can see it gives more information such as values and colour names, it gives you the CMYK values and tells you if it's a spot colour or a global swatch.

GLOBAL SWATCHES

• The white area in the coloured box is representing the Global swatches these are swatches with an established link between them and the colour on your artwork. So they automatically change on the artwork as you change the CMYK mixtures of them, which can work to your advantage if it's needed.
• So for example if you have a 100% Cyan global swatch and you make tints from it as new swatches which are 90% and 80%. If you change the 100% cyan to a 100% magenta, the tints will remain but the ink colour will change, cutting out the hassle for you.
• You can change tints on global swatches, unlike with normal swatches through the colour palette menu.

A tint can be created in Global colours wheres you can only change the CMYK colours in normal swatches.

Spot Colours and Process Colours

• Spot colours is just one colour, not make of CMYK it is a ready mixed colour, Cost effective, as it would only use one plate,
• Process colour is a combination of ink, it is made up of CMYK, and so is more expensive as it uses a four colour plate.  
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For example a spot colour ensure consistency, Baked beans use spot colour so that the packaging can be consistently produced. 
Spot colour reference system is called the Pantone reference system. 
Every colour has a spot colour reference number, eg  Tesco's blue or Heinz Ketchup's red.

Other systems used are:
  

Choosing a Pantone Colour
 Pantone colour swatches:

• Pantone Swatches:
• Example of a spot colour is a Pantone Swatch.
• Assigning a spot colour in software is easy. Once you apply the spot colour as, in this case a Pantone swatch, once fed into a printer or when the professional printers on the other side see it they will know it's a spot colour and the printers will take care of it and apply one coat of ready mixed ink instead of CMYK layers.
• Pantone is the most widely used reference system in EU and UK. Others are true match, focal tone etc. 
• You should always talk to the printer before you print your work to ask what sort of colour systems they use, allowing you to prep your work correctly.

• Library menu >small list - this allows you to see the names and references of the PANTONE colour.
• First you should chose a swatch colour from the swatch pad.
• If you know the reference number it is very easy to go to the list and type the reference number into the top bar.
• Click on the colour that you have chosen, this will add the colour into the document swatch library automatically.

SWATCH LIBRARY 

• AI library files only open in AI. ASE, opens in any other Adobe suite program such as InDesign and Photoshop.
• Opening a Swatch.
• When opening a new document, the swatches are reset to basic CMYK models.