Process-Coated Vs. Solid-Coated Printers
When you create projects for output on commercial printing equipment, you specify the colors in your designs using predefined formulas from a color framework such as the PANTONE Matching System -- PMS, or spot color -- or four-color process called CMYK color. PANTONE provides formulas for both process and spot colors. Its printed reference guides display these colors on various papers, including coated stocks. Its numbered color formulas appear as choices in the drop-down menus and display panels of leading graphic-arts software.
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Spot Color
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Spot-color inks load into a printing press premixed to output a specific shade. To assure industry-wide color matching, PANTONE supplies a proprietary list of formulas, each producing a predictable shade when mixed and prepared correctly. When they plan their printed projects, graphic designers select from reference guides that display spot-color chips representing all the formulas available in the color system. They assign these colors to design elements and type by using the appropriate color system in their design and illustration software. Although it's possible to print a project using many individual inks, the most cost-effective spot-color projects limit themselves to one or two inks.
Process Color
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Instead of relying on premixed inks to produce specific shades, process color produces thousands of colors by mixing four primary inks on the fly in the printing press. Cyan, magenta, yellow and black inks combine to produce continuous-tone images such as photographs, in which color transitions sweep across pictures to print endless shades in nature, art and human activities. Although CMYK output provides considerable design flexibility because of the broad range of hues within the gamut, or range, of process color, it struggles to reproduce some shades, such as bright blues and oranges.
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Coated Vs. Uncoated Stock
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Paper manufacturers create two basic types of products. Uncoated stock includes most papers used for handwriting, desktop printing and newspapers, as well as many choices used for press printing. Ink soaks into the surface of uncoated stock, reproducing fine details less crisply. Coated stock, which is covered with a substance that seals its surface and enhances its smoothness, absorbs far less ink than uncoated stock and presents a brighter, more-opaque appearance. Glossy coated stocks feature a shiny, reflective surface, whereas matte- or silk-finished papers lack the shine of their glossy equivalents.
Ink Appearance
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The same ink formula can look vastly different on coated stock than on uncoated paper. Graphic design relies on critical color matching to deliver completed projects that match the proofs and color references used to make color choices and obtain client approvals. PANTONE color guides include printed references that show the same range of colors on uncoated and coated stocks, including both glossy and matte-finished coated alternatives. Although nothing substitutes for a color reference prepared on the paper specified for an individual project, the cost of printing a single copy of a project simply to assess its color falls outside most design budgets, making color reference guides a viable means of representing color.
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