Process color, also known as four-color process, is just that—printing using four colors. These colors are CMYK: cyan, magenta, yellow, and black (which is the k in CMYK, known as key), and together these colors can create a colored picture. An image is separated into CMYK and transferred to four different printing plates with the four different colors.

The image is printed in each color using dots, these dots are printed over the others to make the color needed to create the image. If you magnify a process image, you will see small dots making up the image, you will often find this type of printing in comics and magazines, but in magazines the images are higher quality so the dots are more difficult to see.

This process is different because the ink colors are not mixed together to create the color needed, rather the colors are kept separate and overlay each other to make the proper color for the image.

While this type of printing, limited to four colors, seems like it would be limited in the colors it could create, process printing can reproduce thousands of colors. Cyan is a blue color that give images the coolness. Magenta is a red color that adds warmth to the image. Yellow adds brightness and black creates contrast and complements the image. And together they can create basically any and all colors imaginable.

But when should you choose process color over the other ink methods? Often, process color is the better option based on the amount of color you are printing. The more color, the better it is to use process color. Some instances for when to use process color:

• When printing full color images
• Publications with multi-color graphics
• If you printing project contains more than two spot colors
• Best for realistic looking photographs