Have you ever stopped to think, how does colour printing work?
Whether it's from a desktop or professional printer, the basics are the same:
- These are the four basic colours Cyan (blue), Magenta (a pink-purple) Yellow and K (which stands for black). Thus, the term 'CMYK'.
- These four colours are mixed in percentages to produce hundreds, if not thousands of variations (the human eye can distinguish up to one million different colours).
- A printer lays down micro 'dots' onto paper.
- DPI stands for dot per inch - the higher the DPI (also known as resolution), the better the final product.
- If you're printing at home, you will need to make a decision if you want to save money (toner and colour cartridges are expensive) and are happy to compromise on quality, you can go as low as 72dpi.
- The paper you print on also affects the final product. Thinner paper (gsm) makes the ink 'bleed'. Thicker paper or card 'holds' the colour. Gloss paper provides another level of printing.
