Design Practice: OUGD504 Creative Suite Session

The two main colour modes:
RGB - for screen
CMYK - for print -- also known as subtractive colour system.

Various different percentages of each c/y/m/k are mixed to produce the colours we intend to print.

First colour to be applied is usually cyan or yellow. This is because they are the lighter colours.
Next colour to be applied is magenta. Once this is included, the image is almost at its final outcome.
K (black) is the last colour to be applied. This is necessary to emphasise shadows / light & dark element.

When creating a new document in Illustrator, the first time we see a colour mode option is when creating a new document. This is shown in the advanced menu option.

Applying colour to a shape in Illustrator

-Top left corner

-Swatches Palette

-Bottom left (fill/no fill) boxes

-Colour Pallete

The swatch palette makes the process of working with colours quick and easy, providing specific colours to work with.

Working with swatches

In order to create our own swatch palette, we need to select all of the existing swatches and delete them.

The palette

It is also easier to change the thumbnail view to a list option.

Creating a new swatch using colour sliders.

In order to tweak the colour when applying it to an image/text without changing the swatch colour, the colour palette must be selected and the colour can be changed to suit the specifically selected object.

Adding swatches.

In order to add every colour select 'add used colours'.

This should add all of these colours to the swatch palette. The new colours are different as they have small triangles in the bottom right hand corners.

Global Swatches.

The reason for the triangles is to show that these are 'global swatches'. Global swatches allow for specific colours to be modified at the same time. For example, when working on a large scale, if many elements are using the same colour which needs to be changed, the global option allows for multiple colour editing at one time.

Creating CMYK percentages:

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Part Two

CMYK are the processing colours

Spot Colours

A colour that is produced without using CMYK. It is its own individual ink. This is useful when working on a lower budget. For example you may be required to work in a two-colour printing process. This therefore would not need to be produced using all four cyan, magenta, yellow and black. This can also have the potential to increase the cost. If CMYK is already being used, then spot colours are added on top of this, the price can increase a considerable amount.

Finding specific swatch palettes