What’s on the Spot Colour & Overprint poster
A definition and 6 facts worth remembering.
A spot colour is a pre-mixed ink printed from its own plate and specified by a matching system. It gives exact repeatable colour and can reach outside the CMYK gamut.
- One plate per spot colour, and each plate costs.
- Metallic and fluorescent inks are spot only.
- A stray spot swatch in a CMYK job adds a fifth plate.
- Overprint: ink prints on top instead of knocking out.
- Black type is normally set to overprint.
- White set to overprint disappears entirely.
- Plates — one per spot ink
- Always check — overprint preview
- Two-colour printing, black plus one spot ink, is often cheaper than full process colour.
Turn on overprint preview before exporting. An accidental overprint is invisible on screen and obvious on the press sheet.
Questions about the Spot Colour & Overprint poster
- What’s on the Spot Colour & Overprint poster?
- A definition and 6 facts worth remembering. A spot colour is a pre-mixed ink printed from its own plate and specified by a matching system. It gives exact repeatable colour and can reach outside the CMYK gamut. One plate per spot colour, and each plate costs.; Metallic and fluorescent inks are spot only.; A stray spot swatch in a CMYK job adds a fifth plate.; Overprint: ink prints on top instead of knocking out.; Black type is normally set to overprint.; White set to overprint disappears entirely.; Plates — one per spot ink; Always check — overprint preview; Two-colour printing, black plus one spot ink, is often cheaper than full process colour.. Turn on overprint preview before exporting. An accidental overprint is invisible on screen and obvious on the press sheet.
- Who is the Spot Colour & Overprint poster for?
- Spot Colour & Overprint belongs to the Art & Design section rather than to a school year, because design is not something one grade owns. Anyone learning digital design can pin it up — a beginner, a student mid-course, or someone revising years later.
- When should you use the Spot Colour & Overprint poster?
- Use it when specifying brand colour, or on any job printing in one or two inks. A wall chart earns its place by being glanceable from where the work is happening, so Spot Colour & Overprint belongs on the wall where that design work actually happens, within glancing distance, rather than filed away.
- What other posters go with Spot Colour & Overprint?
- Bezier Curves, Bleed & Trim and Colour Profiles sit alongside Spot Colour & Overprint in the Art & Design section. Printed together they make a wall rather than a single sheet, which is how a reference set actually gets used.Bezier CurvesBleed & TrimColour Profiles
- Is the Spot Colour & Overprint poster free to download and print?
- Yes. Spot Colour & Overprint downloads as a free PDF with no account, no email and no watermark, like everything else in the Art & Design section. Print as many copies as you like for a home, a classroom, a library or a tutoring group; reselling the file is the only thing the licence rules out.Read the licence
- What size does the Spot Colour & Overprint poster print at?
- Spot Colour & Overprint is a vector PDF laid out for US Letter, and prints on A4 with Fit to page — the same file, no separate download. Because every mark on it is drawn rather than photographed, it stays sharp enlarged to A3, A2 or A1 at a copy shop. Colour carries emphasis only, so a greyscale print of Spot Colour & Overprint loses nothing.Printing guide
Related posters
Charts that sit alongside Spot Colour & Overprint on the same wall.
Browse every Art & Design poster, or start from the full catalogue.