One of the first steps of the design process is determining how many colors you will be printing with (1-color, 2-color or 4-color). This is determined by the budget and what makes the most sense or gives a certain feeling for the piece we are designing. It used to be that  2-color printing was more cost-effective than 4-color printing, but now with digital imaging printing presses and with digital toner-based printing, the prices have come down, so that you can get the gamut of color choices.

1 & 2 Color Printing

Consists of one or two inks made of either just black and a Pantone ink, or just 1 or 2 Pantone inks. The Pantone Matching System has over 700 inks you can choose from, and ensures an exact match of color if you need a specific color for a logo.

4 Color (or Full Color) Printing

Uses Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Black inks to create the spectrum of color on the paper. This offers the most versatility when choosing the color palette as well as being able to print color photographs.

Often when printing a report, it is most cost-effective to print a 4-color cover and either 1 or 2 colors on the inside.

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Once we’ve determined the print process we will be using, we will ask you some questions to get the feeling for the tone of your project and if you have specific colors you do or do not want to use. We will determine the color palette based on this information and what we think works best with the design. During proofing, we will show you the color palette and one of the steps in the design process is to select the palette or to change colors if necessary.

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