Spot color applies a premixed ink to the page. This color is usually identified by a color system such as the PANTONE MATCHING SYSTEM. Spot color is useful for documents that require only a few colors, such as newsletters, brochures and stationery. Spot color is also used to match specific colors very closely.

Spot Colour Printing uses a single (different) ink for each colour used (making it extremely precise), whereas the CMYK method uses only four colours: cyan, magenta, yellow and black (which can be mixed to create an almost infinite number of colours and shades, in just one printing press pass.

Spot color, selective color, or semi black and white processing is a technique that converts a color photo to black and white with a selected area retaining its original coloring. This strongly draws the viewer's attention. When some areas of the image are desaturated, the colored elements become the primary focus.

Spot printing works a little bit differently than four color or CMYK printing. With spot printing, each color is mixed and printed individually. Rather than recreating colors using CMYK concentrations, spot printing utilizes exact matching to the original PMS, or Pantone Matching System, color.