Printing Tech - CMYK Printing & UV Printing
The four standard colors are:
C = Cyan, also known as ‘sky blue’ or ‘azure blue’;
M = Magenta;
Y = Yellow;
K = blacK;
Although some literature explains that the “K” here should be “Key Color”(positioning registration color), this is actually due to the confusion with the positioning registration concept used in plate making. The abbreviation here uses the last letter K instead of the beginning B to avoid confusion with Blue.
Magenta plus Yellow makes Red;
Cyan plus Yellow makes Green;
Magenta plus Cyan makes Blue;
Theoretically, 1,030,301 colors including black can be formed by adding the above three colors (0~100% mode). However, since the ink itself is not a truly pure color, the addition of equal amounts of the three colors can only form a dark gray or dark brown instead of black in actual printing process. The actual degree of deviation varies depending on the ink formulas of different brands.
The ideal CMY three primary color inks/powder/other material should print out the finished product exactly the same as the complementary colors of the RGB three colors of light. However, the CMY three-color pigments currently used in general color printing/inkjet/laser actually have different color casts regardless of the brand.
Generally, “cyan” is slightly magenta and bluish, “magenta” is generally both cyan and yellow but purple, and “yellow” is only slightly magenta and slightly orange. In addition, not only the black produced by three-layer CMY overprinting is not only difficult to dry immediately and is not conducive to fast printing, but the three-color overprinting also requires very precisely. Therefore, directly using black ink to replace the impure black produced by impure CMY three-layer overprinting can also save costs significantly. Although “black” is not a “primary color”, it has become one of the necessary colors for color printing. The amount of black used to replace other colors varies, with key considerations including the printing technique, paper and black ink quality, etc.
There is a big difference between CMYK and RGB. RGB mode is a color mode in which the screen displays light so that you can still see the content on the screen in a dark room. CMYK is a color mode used for printed matter that relies on light reflection. Based on the light absorption/reflection properties of ink, the colors that the eyes can see are actually the colors of objects that absorb specific frequencies of light in white light and reflect the rest. We can see the content when the light shines on the ink and then reflects into our eyes. It requires an external light source, and you can’t see the ink if you’re in a dark room. As long as the image is displayed on the screen, it is expressed in RGB mode; as long as the image is seen on the printed matter, it is expressed in CMYK mode.
You must not simply and crudely convert the file from RGB to CMYK if you accidentally forget to set the file to CMYK mode . Otherwise, the prints made using this file will have more than 50% color distortion. Because it needs to go through a change in the intermediate three-color mode to remove the black version factor when converting from CMYK mode to RGB mode. So the colors of the two printed products will be different. Therefore, do not use direct conversion if you require very accurate colors.
CMYK printing is a widely used and effective printing method for producing high-quality color prints for various applications. Even so, it may not be suitable for printing on certain non-porous or specialty substrates such as plastics, metals, and glass but simply paper. And CMYK inks typically require time to dry or cure after printing, which can slow down production speeds, especially for high-volume print works. In order to achieve better substrate compatibility and ensure operational efficiency, most of suppliers adopt UV printing instead.
In summary, both CMYK printing and UV printing offer distinct advantages and limitations, depending on the specific printing application, substrate material, desired print quality, and budget considerations. The choice between CMYK printing and UV printing ultimately depends on factors such as substrate compatibility, desired print effects, production speed, and cost considerations.
Both CMYK and UV printing play significant roles in the peripheral product industries, offering distinct advantages and applications that cater to the diverse needs of manufacturers, retailers, and consumers. They support to produce high-quality, customized, and visually impactful print materials for packaging, marketing, branding, and product customization. Their combined use contributes to elevating the visual appeal, brand recognition, and marketability of peripheral products in competitive markets.
Our thorough supply network provides direct touch to the mature and experienced supplier group who’s able to realize your project on producing or customizing animation derivatives or any other branded peripheral products completely, precisely and cost-effectively.
Article edited from Thousand Body
