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Michele Davis wonders: <<I am trying to figure out what this means: "maybe
four color over two" It is for a design project, but I'm not sure what the
client means.>>
When in doubt, always make sure that the client knows what they mean and can
explain it to you. You'd be amazed and appalled by the misunderstandings
that arise when two people think they're using technical or pseudo-technical
terms the same way and neither bothers to check this. (Editors encounter
this all the time. "What do you mean you wanted me to rewrite it from
scratch? All you asked for was a copyedit.") Better to find this out now,
before the finger-pointing starts.
"Four color" usually means that they plan to use standard offset printing,
in which four printing plates (cyan, magenta, yellow, and black ink) are
used to create the illusion of the full spectrum of colors. For the latter
reason, you'll often hear this referred to as "full color" by laymen. But
I've also heard it to mean "black ink plus three spot colors" (spot colors
are created with specific inks such as those defined in the Pantone system
or even various types of varnish). "Over two" can have various meanings,
depending on context. Here, it may mean that they're adding two spot colors
in addition to the four colors mentioned above. But I haven't heard this
used as a standard term by the printers I've worked with, so be sure to
clarify the meaning with your client.
--Geoff Hart, geoff-h -at- mtl -dot- feric -dot- ca
(try ghart -at- videotron -dot- ca if you get no response)
Forest Engineering Research Institute of Canada
580 boul. St-Jean
Pointe-Claire, Que., H9R 3J9 Canada
"Wisdom is one of the few things that look bigger the further away it
is."--Terry Pratchett
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