Printing registration

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Registration is a jargon term used in the Print Press industry. It is the method of correlating color separations.

[edit] What is Registration

Registration is printing specific extra marks so that different artwork can be aligned. These are known as Registration Marks in Desktop Publishing.

[edit] Why registration is necessary

Registration is to help align different colours to form a continuous tone image. Different printing devices have different methods of creating color. Often this requires a pass to create one colour component, and then another pass to create more. Combined these should create the optical illusion of colour. But by splitting the colour creation into many discreet passes the process becomes prone to error. These errors can mean that the optical illusion is broken and that the discreet colours become visible. One method of reducing and quantifying error is Registration

Cyan, magenta, yellow, and black (CMYK) inks when printed separately.