Glossary of Print Terms

DUOTONE: This is a printing process in which a picture is printed using only two colors, usually a dark and light color for contrast.

CMYK: (Short for cyan, magenta, yellow, and key (black) This process uses these four colors to produce an image and is often referred to as the four color process.

Pantone®/PMS (Pantone Matching System): Pantone is the company that makes the Pantone Matching System , a color standard created through the mixture of different primary inks. This helps give designers and clients an idea of how a color will look when printed.

Raster: An image that is made of small colored pixels in a grid formation that, when viewed from a distant, create the allusion of a unified image. When smaller raster images get blown up to big you can begin to see the pixels that make up the image, creating a fuzzy overall look to the image.

RGB: (Short for red, green, blue) This is the set of colors used to display all images on a computer screen and is the color system used for website graphics.

Vector: An image using points, lines, curves, and shapes that are created through mathematical calculations. This means an image can be infinitely enlarged and is ideal for the creation of logos which may be placed on anything from an envelope to the side of a building.