What does 4-color process printing entail?
In color printing, the four-color process (commonly called CMYK) refers to using four ink colors—cyan, magenta, yellow, and black—in varying quantities to produce the colors on the color wheel.
The four-color process is the typical way of printing full-color images. When an image is printed with four color process inks, each pixel comprises four smaller dots containing cyan, magenta, yellow and black hues; when seen from far away, these tiny dots form one solid color in human vision.
CMYK printing is another way to refer to the four-color process of using inks of cyan, magenta, yellow, and black (the K in CMYK stands for “key,” another name for black).
Moreover, 4-color-process printing is ideal for producing images with abundant hues, such as photographs. This method reproduces more colors than just three (such as RGB color models used on electronic devices).
One drawback of four-color process printing is its more expensive than single or two-color print jobs due to each ink color requiring its printing plate – in other words, the four-color process requires four printing plates (one per ink color).
Furthermore, 4-color-process printing may produce colors that do not quite “true to life” due to its reliance on human perception of color mixing and perception. As such, printed colors may differ slightly from intended colors.
