What is a spot colour?
Most colours can be matched using CMYK, by mixing ink colours with special mixing formulas. However some colours simply cannot be created with colour blends. To reproduce those colours, special inks called "spot colours" are used. Spot colours are sometimes used by large corporations to print their "corporate colours" with absolute consistency.
If you wish to use one or more spot colours in your print job, you will choose from a swatch book with more than 700 colour samples shown on coated and uncoated paper stocks. The colour system for spot colours is the Pantone Matching System (PMS), and the PMS swatch books are the standard used by printers and designers worldwide.
