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Graphic Design vocabulary · Print Production

Colour separation

Meaning in graphic design, with examples

nounCommon term

In graphic design, colour separation means: Dividing artwork into the individual ink components needed for printing.

In Turkish: renk ayrımı

How it is used

Use for plate or ink-channel preparation rather than colour correction alone.

Example sentences

  1. Colour separation revealed an unwanted spot ink in the file.

    Inspecting individual ink components exposes unintended printing channels.

  2. We checked the black colour separation before approving the small text.

    A single separation shows which elements use that particular ink.

Common collocations

  • colour separation preview
  • check colour separations
  • spot colourA specially mixed ink printed as a single solid colour instead of being built from CMYK dots, used for exact brand colours, metallics and neons. Pantone is the best-known system.
  • CMYKCyan, magenta, yellow and key (black): the four ink colours used in most colour printing. Mixing them in small dots creates the full range of printed colours.

More terms: Print Production

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