Today we had a helpful workshop on the use of colour swatches in analogue printing methods and why they are regularly used in the production of publications.
Colour swatches are used in design for a number of reasons. The first is to ensure a consistent colour palette across a range of publications and media, perhaps for if you were creating a number of different products for one brand, swatches help to maintain consistency of the brand and abide by copyright laws.
The second is to reduce printing costs. Using a limited yet consistent colour palette can reduce the costs of ink, as if you were spot printing, less types of ink would need to be used and in cases with less than 4 inks yoou wouldn't have to use CMYK which would greatly reduce costs.
Swatches also help you keep the exact pigment you want without having to make it time and time again, making the actual design process much quicker. They also allow you to change every example of that one colour used in the document, simultaneously at the same time. Meaning it's far quicker and easier to tweak elements of a document.
You can also save swatch palettes to be used at a later date without having to waste time going back and trying to recreate the same colour palette for a new document. Swatch palettes can also be used across a number of adobe programmes including illustrator, indesign and photoshop.
Making a swatch global allows you to create different pigments for a certain colour which will automatically adjust if you alter the colour in any way.
Finally through the swatch panel you can access the pantone colour system, allowing you to print consistent colours on a universally recognised scale, allowing you to correspond with clients from anywhere in the world.
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