Scale colours are standardised variants of the process colours cyan, magenta, yellow and black, which were defined according to earlier fixed standards such as the ‘Euroscala’. The term refers to a colour scale that enables a colour-accurate and reproducible representation of these colours.
The best-known standards for process colours are ISO 2846 (colour properties of printing inks) and ISO 12647 (standardised printing processes). The specifications of these four basic process colours ensured that printing results remained reproducible regardless of the machine, location or time. They were therefore mainly used in professional printing, pre-press and colour management.
The term ‘process colours’ is used in particular when it comes to compliance with binding colour specifications or quality control in the printing process. In this context, process colours are often checked using colour measuring devices (e.g. spectrophotometers). There are also numerous older colour profiles that include the term Euroscala in their name: Euroscala Coated, Euroscala Uncoated and many more.
In everyday use in the printing industry, process colours and process colours are often equated.
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