Four colour process printing

When these varying amounts of the 4 base inks are printed one over the other, the resulting variations will print as new colours. Rather than having the colour tones premixed like that with spot colour logos , we are basically having the inks mixed 'on the fly' on the press instead. Four colour reproduction is generally more expensive than Spot colours and colour accuracy is largely dependant on the skill and professionalism of the shop printing your material. It should be noted that the colour created by 4 Colour Process printing are not solid colours at all, but rather a series of dots. Your artwork will combine various densities of the 4 base inks Cyan (blue), Magenta (red), yellow and black. These percentages are most noticeable in the low resolution photography printing of most newspapers. Generally speaking, any four color logo should be in high enough resolution so that the little dots are not visible, though this kind of reproduction will never have the absolute resolution of spot colour printing.

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Pros of four colour process logos

Unlimited colours & choices
There are no limitations to the number of colours you can have built into your new logo. Unlike spot colour logos which have to 'cheat' - using tones and screens to create the appearance of additional colours - four colour process logos can use any colour that the designer or client wishes.

Special FX friendly
While not recommended for the day-to-day version of your logo, there will be the occasion that you'll want to throw some special FX at the design - think lens flares, drop shadows, glows, etc. Most of these special FX filters require bitmap images to work, and bitmap images generally require four colour process to print.

Adaptable in print
When adding your logo to artwork that is to be printed using CMYK, it's generally just a matter of placing your logo into the artwork file and we're done. Logos created in spot colour can require colour correction before hand, though this isn't generally a problem - as long as we have either a vector version or a bitmap graphic in adequate resolution.

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Cons of four colour process logos

Usage restrictions
Certain uses of your logo may require extensive conversions, including (but not limited to) vinyl plotter signs, some silk-screen applications, spot colour reproduction, etc. While there are workarounds for most of these uses (signs, for example can be printed as digital output, and some T-shirt printers do offer 4 colour process silk-screening), it's always better to begin any logo design project with an eye on future applications so that you don't paint yourself into a corner.

More expensive to print - maybe
The reproduction of 4 colour printed material is generally more expensive that spot due, to the additional printing steps and material required. There are exceptions - discount online printers for example - as they tend to 'gang' four colour material together. Keep this in mind - the money you'll save with this type of printing is often overshadowed by the lack of quality. Discount online printers are set up to be inexpensive, not precise, and you'll find that colour will shift with each run.

Colour matching can be 'iffy'
Unlike spot colour reproduction, which uses premixed inks selected from a swatch book, 4 colour process colour mixing occurs on the press. Accordingly, the accuracy of colour is left in the hands of the press operator, and depends on the ink densities of other jobs being printed at the same time. This factor is negated somewhat by the fact that it's much easier to obtain an accurate press proof of a 4 colour print job, while proofs of spot colour work is generally a 'best guess'.

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