Summary

Using color in publishing involves complex decisions. There are many ways to define colors, but they don't all result in the same colors when you finally print your documents. That's why choosing the color models for your documents up front is important.

Color can also be expensive to print, so you may need to weigh when you use color and how you apply it. A spot color a single ink is cheaper to print than full color (produced by combining four or six process colors) but of course gives you less visual flexibility. You can also mix spot colors with process colors to add special colors such as pastels and metallics that process colors cannot produce.