Recently I created a poster for my printing class that demonstrated color separations. It didn’t take me too long to create but nevertheless, it is important information. I like to use it to check whether or not I left Pantone or spot colors laying around in my projects. But it’s also important for understanding how color is printed. When using CMYK – Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, and Black – the color is laid out in a way that will create the color that is shown. So of course, when creating green both Cyan and Yellow are used. When using the color separation tool in InDesign, I can see how much of each ink will be used to create the color. It’s also important to note that each ink is printed at various angles. Cyan will be printed at a +15 degree, Magenta at -15 degrees, Yellow at 0 degree, and Black at a 45 degree angle. That way the colors are not muddled together but will trick the eye into seeing they color that is mixed.

Of course each kind of printing method has variations but this is just the essentials of it all. Plus I wanted to share the poster that I created.

color separation poster (this is a PDF version of it. In case you wanted to see the details.