Too many printing terms? We are happy to help!

17.05.21

People without graphic training are usually not very familiar with the technical terms of printing. That's not a problem, because if you have something printed by us, you will of course always receive optimal advice so that there are no misunderstandings. Nevertheless, it doesn't hurt to know the most important printing terms such as CMYK or RGB. In this blog post we have summarized the most important terms for you so that nothing stands in the way of communication.

What are CMYK and RGB?

CMYK and RGB are two different color spaces. To understand their application, the terms light and body colors must first be clarified. Light colors come from a light source, while body colors are reflected from surfaces of various objects.

RGB stands for red, green and blue, which are colors of light. The addition of these primary colors produces white and is referred to as additive color mixing. The light colors cannot be used for printing because the more these colors are mixed together, the darker the result will be. They are therefore used on all types of screens. If you look closely at a screen, you can even see the red, green and blue dots that make up everything.

CMYK stands for Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Black, which are body colors. The addition of the colors cyan, magenta and yellow produces black and is called subtractive color mixing. They are used for printing. The colors are applied one after the other to a paper, which then forms different shades.

When you create something as a designer, you should always know the end medium so that you can work in the right color space.

What are special colors/spot colors?

Spot colors are specially produced printing colors that are not composed of the standard printing colors cyan, magenta, yellow or black (CMYK). Their durability makes them well suited to reflecting a company's corporate design, as a logo must always be reproduced in exactly the same color each time it is printed. The two most well-known color systems are HKS or Pantone colors. HKS colors are mixed from 9 and Pantone colors from 14/18 primary colors, which results in a much larger color space than CMYK.

What does 1c/4c/0 mean?

The C stands for “color”. Therefore 1c = monochrome. 4c = four-color (CMYK) and 0 = unprinted. When ordering 1c/4c flyers, the flyers are printed in one color at the front and four colors at the back.

What is partial white printing?

When printing on regular paper, white areas remain unprinted because the paper itself is already white. When printing on transparent surfaces, white areas remain unprinted, and colors remain highly translucent. Partial white printing is used to print opaquely on transparent objects such as glass or plexiglass. A white layer is printed on the transparent object, on which the motif is printed. This creates a higher saturation of the colors and white areas are ultimately really white.

What is bleed?

If you want to have a paper printed right up to the edge, the printed area should always be larger than the area to be cut out. If the printed area is the same size, small inaccuracies in the cutting machine can result in a white border. Bleeding is the area of the printed surface that is cut off and only serves to avoid a white border.

What is the grammage?

The grammage indicates the weight per square meter of paper. The higher the grammage, the thicker the paper is. Together with the format, the grammage is the most important selection criterion for printed materials.