Episode 21: Printing Color in the Real World

It seems like the entire printed graphics world has turned to digital processing and imaging. The need — and skills — required for custom mixing and printing of spot colors faded into a blur of stochastic dots spit out by 4-, 6-, and 8-color print heads. The actual printing of a specific color is controlled by the algorithms of the computer and a button. Don’t get me wrong; that’s some fancy printing hardware and software. But nobody is mixing inks in the digital world. Screen printers, being a different species of printer, continue to work in a world where designers still call for spot colors, because it’s what we do. And Pantone, the color matching system that has been a worldwide common language between designers and printers since 1963, still remains in use.