4 Colours or 4 Colour Process?

4 colours and 4 colour process are commonly used terms within the printing industry. But what do they mean? Hopefully this short blog should set you straight. 🙂

What’s the difference between 4 Colours and 4 Colour Process? Simply put…

4 Colours

4 Colours normally refers to a screen printing method of branding.

Just as ‘1 Colour’ artwork, consists of 1 individual colour, ‘4 Colours’ can be defined by 4 individual colours. These colours can be found in any ‘Pantone book’, a phrase coined by Pantone Inc, whom created the globally recognised reference of colours called the ‘Pantone Matching System (PMS)’. Marketers all over the world converse using this system, allowing printers to print the exact colours in your logo or artwork, simply by  providing them with a PMS reference number.

‘4 Colours’ does not allow for any shaded colours or tints.

A 4 Colour image - broken down into Pantone Colours
A 4 Colour image – broken down into Pantone Colours

4 Colour Process

Full Colour Process - CMYK Pallet

4 Colour Process (4CP), aka ‘Digital Printing’, is a commonly used phrase for printing CMYK: Cyan (a Blue), Magenta (a Red), Yellow (… Yellow) and Key (Black).
Just like in your home printer, the 3 primary colours can be combined to create secondary colours and in turn all the colours of the rainbow. We add Key (Black) to create a true Black.

4 Colour Process is used for artwork, containing colour photographs, shading or more complex imagery.

Your Full Colour Process image, logo or artwork is uploaded onto the computer and then printed directly onto your products, usually using a digital printer.

4 Colour Process image, broken down into CMYK
4 Colour Process image, broken down into CMYK

Digital printing is the future for promotional products. It’s fantastic for quick turnaround products,  low order quantities, including one offs (where you may want to have your client’s name individually printed onto to a product), and digital printing can be significantly cheaper than any other method, as there are sometimes no Origination (printing set up costs).

Promo Parrot have a huge range of Digitally Printed Promotional Products.

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Please get in touch if you have any questions relating to promotional products.
Call 0113 322 1010 or email us at sales@promoparrot.com.

This article was written by Charles Simmons, Sales & Marketing Director at Promo Parrot.

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