No, it’s not the latest Pokemon or a dance craze on TikTok.
Do you ever see this amazing blue color on your screen that’s both vibrant and dark? Like the American Flag or Pepsi.? You print it out, and it comes out…..PURPLE?!
That’s Blurple, and it can make or break your print.
Most commercial and standard printers use a 4 color process. Meaning they use a mixture of Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, and Black to create all the colors.
Remember those days in elementary school when you mixed paints like blue and yellow to make green? Just like that!
Say you want to print this using this dark blue background:
C: 100
M: 93
Y:0
K:0
Eh…Cyan and Magenta are super close!
So what can you do?
Drop down the magenta and add a little extra black to give it richness.
C: 100
M: 70
Y:0
K:30
It’s not exactly the same, but you won’t risk it looking purple.
But wait! How do all those big companies print that amazing blue?
They are most likely using Pantone or Spot colors. These are premade inks that are created to always be the same. This type of printing is more costly because the ink is expensive and the printer has to step up the machine just for your order.
