Spot Colour Printing involves transferring ink from a "plate", onto paper or card. The plate is fixed to a drum within the press. As the drum revolves the image on the plate collects ink which is then forced against the paper as it moves through the machine. You need 1 plate for each colour you wish to have printed.

The inks used for Spot Colour printing are mixed using special recipes. These recipes use various base ink colours to produce a specific colour that is able to be chosen by the customer or designer from a swatch book, a library of colour. The most commonly used colour library is manufactured by Pantone, their colours are used around the world as the industry standard for colour mixes.

The benefit of being able to select a Pantone colour is that the customer needs only to supply a printer with that corresponding colour number to ensure their printed products all match. Although there can be some variation when using different stocks, generally the use of consistent Pantone colours creates a pleasant continuity.

Specific colour mixes are often used when a company requires a nice clean well defined presence using simple logos or illustration.