9.3

Color, opacity, and drop shadows
QuarkXPress lets you create custom colors, choose colors from several standardized color
matching systems, and edit colors. You can apply both color and shade to text and pictures.
You can also control the opacity of text in the same way you control its color. You can
apply drop shadows to both items and text.
Understanding color
Understanding spot and process colors
While some print devices can output QuarkXPress layouts in full color, final production
for many publishing environments takes the form of color separation plates reproduced
on-press using color inks.
QuarkXPress separation plates
You can specify two types of color in a project: Spot color and process color. When you
print a page that contains spot colors, QuarkXPress includes all characters, pictures, and
items of a given spot color on the same spot color separation plate. When a layout contains
items to which you have applied a process color, QuarkXPress separates the color into the
appropriate number of process ink components, and prints a process separation plate of
each ink component for every page in your layout. If, for example, your pages contain
items to which a single spot color has been applied as well as items to which you have
applied four-color process colors, the application will print five separation plates for each
page that contains the colors: The cyan, magenta, yellow, and black process separation
plates, plus another plate that contains page elements to which the spot color is applied.
Press plates
To reproduce color on-press, commercial printers create a press plate from each of the spot
color and process ink separations. A four-color job requires four press plates, each printing
a different ink color to create the final full-color page.
Specifying matching system colors
Selecting colors from a color matching system can be helpful when communicating with
a commercial printer about the colors in your layout. You can use the Edit Color dialog
box (Edit > Colors > New) to select colors from the following color models: PANTONE
184 | A GUIDE TO QUARKXPRESS 9.3
COLOR, OPACITY, AND DROP SHADOWS