Color Basics for Print Designers

From Rainbows to Pantone®: Understanding Color in Print Design

4.10 (54 reviews)

Udemy

platform

English

language

Graphic Design

What you will learn

Why take this course?

Have you ever been surprised by how a different color looks when printed on paper, compared to how it looks displayed on screen? Do you get frustrated by endless discussions with clients about why a printed piece looks different than the pdf they approved? This 35-minute course will explain why the colors that you see is much different from that which your monitor can display, and what your printer can output. By the end, you'll have scientific proof that you simply cannot reproduce all the colors of nature.

Who Should Take This Course

Print designers and producers who want to learn the essentials of working in color.
Print designers who aren’t familiar with production techniques, and who want to gain a foundation for understanding the 4-color printing process, and how spot colors, such as Pantone® inks, can supplement it.
Beginner print, web, and mobile, designers who want to understand color theory.
Writers and editors who want to gain insight into the design process. These students should please note: this course is technical in content, and color theory will not be covered.
Users of Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign, who want to understand the pre-press process as it relates to color separations, and the use of spot colors, such as Pantone® inks.

What’s Required

A desire to explore the covered topics.

Suggested Resources

Notebook & something to write with, or equivalent tools.

Reviews

Angela

November 15, 2022

The material that was covered was concise and good but I was hoping for more explanation about why colors don't print the same as on my monitor which is what the description of the course lead me to believe. Explaining the difference in RGB/CMYK is valid but I was hoping for more on color profiles, monitor/printer settings, etc... that would further explain how to get the right colors on my monitor to print. I understand a lot of this conversation varies by design program and printer used but this is really the information I was wanting.

Donald

March 4, 2021

The course was a very good, introduction to color in print and in digital. The Instructor spoke in a clear and understandable voice. He was concise and to the point with good visual aids. The class was short enough to digest in one sitting and in depth to allow you to go on to more in-depth books or courses on color in digital or print use. The review was great, the Instructor summed up the material in a clear and concise way. I enjoyed the 30 + minutes of the course.

Pierre

September 27, 2013

I wrote overview in the title because each of the lectures 2 to 7 could be expanded into whole courses by themselves. In other words, if you have no idea where to start with colour printing, this course will point you in the right direction and give you the fundamental tools to continue. A true foundational course. The course itself I would probably lower the score as it is very basic and is not produced in modern16:9 wide screen. However, the logical well-paced presentation, the excellent voice delivery, both in tone and volume boosts it to 5 stars. It's obvious Mr Caserto wrote the course out and practiced before submitting the final product.

Kerry

June 9, 2013

I'm a web designer but have been assigned occasional print tasks in our small business. Fortunately, we had a print guy who would comb through my files to correct mistakes before going to print, but I could never connect nor remember everything he mentions to me. This course gives just the right amount of information and emphasis to fill in the gaps of my knowledge on print/color. Thanks, Joseph!