Värijakoa

Värijakoa, often translated as color separation, is a fundamental process in color printing. It involves breaking down a full-color image into its constituent primary colors. For most printing processes, these primary colors are Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, and Black, commonly referred to by the acronym CMYK.

Each of these primary colors is represented by a separate printing plate. During the printing process, ink of the corresponding color is applied to each plate. When these plates are layered together on the paper, the dots of ink from each color overlap and combine visually, recreating the original full-color image. The density and size of the dots on each plate, known as halftones, determine the perceived color and tonal values.

The creation of these color separations is typically done using specialized software. This software analyzes the original image and calculates the percentage of each CMYK color needed at every point to achieve the desired final color. This process ensures that the printed output accurately reflects the colors of the original artwork or photograph. Without värijakoa, it would be impossible to reproduce photographic quality images using standard printing techniques.