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the production manual
cyan
magenta
standard print order The illustrations above show what is considered the normal order in which colour plates print, together with the final result. The illustration on the far right shows what happens if the plates print out of sequence, in this instance the magenta and yellow plates. selecting an alternative print order Normally, special colours are printed where they make most sense. For example, if there are large areas to be printed, such as in the example below, it is typical to print the silver first and then the other colours. Here silver prints first, then cyan, magenta, black and finally yellow, so, in fact, not CMYK at all. Yellow is often printed last to act as a seal, as black printing last can cause pickering problems that leave uneven patches on the sheet. It is usually appropriate to discuss colour print order with the printer when using overprints and special colours in order to prevent printing problems such as printing out of order. The images at the top of the page show how the colour can become distorted when plates such as magenta and yellow print out of sequence.
promotional poster (right) This promotion piece produced for a lecture in Japan created by Faydherbe/De Vringer prints four-colour with a silver. As the silver spot colour does not interact with any of the other colours in this job – the black does not need to overprint, for example – it can be printed last.
yellow
black
CMYK
CMYK with magenta and yellow plates in the wrong order