Printing: Tips for adding color to your project

BY JON BOND

As a general guideline, we recommend incorporating color into almost any printing project. Use of color improves reader comprehension, calls for attention to important information and improves the overall appearance of your document.

A common way to use PMS (Pantone Matching System) color is to combine it with black as an accent. The color draws the reader’s eye and emphasizes the information printed in color. Or, if used for headlines or subheads in text, the color enhances the document’s organizational structure by creating easily discerned text segments.

To create the illusion of more than one color when using a single PMS color, create a tint or screen behind a section of type. To the reader the screen will appear as a lighter shade. For some colors, the tint may appear to be a completely different color. A 20 percent screen of burgundy, for example, may appear as pink.

To add color to a newsletter when the budget is limited, combine a PMS color with black on the pages that print together on one side of a press sheet. For a four-page newsletter, a typical use would be color on pages one and four. ■

Jon Bond is owner of Bond Printing Company, located in Hanover. He can be reached at (781) 871-3990 or jon@bondprinting.com.


Published in Cape & Plymouth Business February 2010