What is Colour Separation?

Colour separation is the process by which original artwork is separated into individual colour components for printing. The components are cyan, magenta, yellow and black, known as CMYK. By combining these colours, a wide spectrum of colours can be produced on the printed page. In this four colour printing process, each color is applied to a printing plate. When the colours are combined on paper (they are actually printed as small dots), the human eye combines the colours to see the final image. The use of plates for printing is part of the process known as lithography.