Navigating Print-Speak

With well over a decade in the design and pre-press world, design-speak is a way of life for me. CMYK, spot inks, imposition, traps, bleeds, PMS matching, RIPs and the like are all terms that roll right off my tongue. I often joke that, as the son of a commercial artist, I was likely one of very few second graders in the country who knew what “CMYK” meant.

While dyed–in-the-wool technophile designers like myself relish in learning new technical terms and applying them in my work life (and I’m sure to my wife’s dismay, my home life as well), most people probably have no idea what the heck I’m talking about.

What does “CMYK” really mean?  Are you sure you really meant to call that color PMS ink?  I thought that was something else. A bleed? Now I’m really confused! If these are thoughts you’ve had as you’ve ventured into the design and printing world, this is just for you. I’m going to go over a few common terms so the next time you talk to me, you’ll know what I’m saying!

CMYK

“CMYK” signifies that four different color inks are being used on the press to create prints that are “full color;” that is to say, a combination of these four colors will create any color in the rainbow. As a result, CMYK is often referred to as “full color” or 4-color,” since it’s a process whereby four standard ink colors are used to create full color prints. Still with me?  Good!

So what are those inks, exactly? They’re not just whatever color the print shop decides to use, but four specific colors: cyan, magenta, yellow and key. Wait, key? I thought you were going to say black! Black is the standard key color, but for whatever reason, K stands for “key.” Go figure! If you look at your trusty Epson or HP desktop inkjet printer, you’ll notice it uses cartridges that have these same color inks.

The inks are printed, one at a time, layered onto the paper so that when all are combined, it creates the finished image.

Spot Inks

A “spot ink” refers to an ink that has been created as a specific color formula. The most common way of identifying spot ink colors is by using the Pantone Matching System, or PMS. So, for example, if I referred to PMS 370, anyone with a PMS swatch book could look up that color and know I was referring to a nice grassy green ink color.

Now, the question is, why not just use four-color process to print everything? Why mess with these PMS or spot colors? Well, there are some good reasons for this. Some are budgetary, some are for consistency in color, and some are just personal preference. From a budgetary standpoint, you can have a piece printed in two ink colors, say black and PMS 370. This is typically less expensive than printing in CMYK (you’re printing two inks, not four) so it works well for pieces such as newspaper ads where you can add a second spot color for some visual punch without paying significantly more for CMYK.

From a consistency standpoint, using a spot color, or spot colors, means that you’re using a standard signature color that almost everyone in the world is going to recognize. This is especially important when it comes to corporate identity, such as logos. The official Michigan State University green is PMS 341. No matter who is printing something for MSU, they will be able to use the correct color every single time.

Bleeds

Simply put, a bleed is where the content of a design extends beyond the page edge. While a nice, clean white border on a page is sometimes appropriate, sometimes us designers decide the image should go all the way to the page’s edge, especially backgrounds or other design elements.

A bleed extends the design elements past the page edge so when the sheet is trimmed, there are no unsightly gaps at the page edge. If the elements were taken just to the page edge in the design process, inevitable variations in the trimming of those sheets after printing would show gaps.

Resolution

A big issue we all deal with is resolution. But what exactly does that mean? A digital photo is a digital photo, right?  Well, yes and no. Simply put, resolution refers to the number of pixels in an inch (or centimeter) in an image. The higher the resolution (or, the more pixels per inch), the better quality the image is.

One question I get a lot is whether or not I can pull an image or logo off a Web site for use in a printed piece. In general, the answer is no. As a rule, Web images are saved at 72 to 96 dpi (dots, a.k.a. pixels, per inch). This is because most computer screens can only display at 72 dpi, so saving the images at a larger dpi just wastes space and makes download times longer.

In the print world, I like to see a minimum resolution of 200 dpi, and that’s only if the image is not going to be blown up at all. As a rule, I look for images that are 300 dpi or higher. In some cases I have worked with images in excess of 2000 dpi, but fortunately those were isolated cases where an image was being printed 20 or more feet high!

(An example of a logo with low resolution)

So hopefully you have a better idea of what some of the techno-babble means the next time we talk. This is the first of what I hope will be several postings on this subject. That’s where you come in! Tell me what terms you hear bandied about in the world of print and design, but just aren’t quite sure what they mean. E-mail me at stephen@m3group.biz with your questions or suggestions, or leave a comment below. I look forward to hearing from you!