Full color printing, also known as Four Color Printing or CMYK printing is printing using various mixed percentages of cyan, magenta, yellow and black ink to produce a wide range of colors (aka color gamut) but not all the colors the human eye can percieve. There are enhanced cmyk printing methods and spot colors which can help achieve colors beyond the standard CMYK gamut - such as fluorescent orange, bright blue and hot pink.
4/4 - Pronounced four over four, this is a typical phrase associated with full color, cymk printing on both sides of a single sheet of paper or card stock. This would be the typical for most full color printing orders.
4/1 - Pronounced four over one, this phrase is associated with full color, cymk printing on the front or 1 side of a single sheet and a visually a single color on the back side of the paper stock. "Visually" is the keyword here because while the color may be a solid blue color like blue text on the back, it will still be a build of CMYK, making it visually 4/1 but technically it's 4/4.
4/0 - Pronounced four over zero, this is a typical phrase associated with full color, cymk printing on 1 side of the paper or card stock. This is also referred to 1 sided full color printing.
SPOT COLOR PRINTING REFERENCES
Spot color printing supports a wider range of colors that can be printed but it gets expensive fast. Typically most spot color orders are one color or two colors and the occasional 3 color print order is placed. BCE has done spot printing with 6 colors and more is possible. Spot colors are mostly used with Pantone colors (aka PMS colors) along with raised (thermography) printing.
2/2 - Pronounced two over two, this is a typical phrase associated with two spot colors printing on both sides of a single sheet of paper or card stock. Normally the same colors are used front and back but this is not required. A product may be two colors on the front and another two colors on the back.
2/1 - Pronounced two over one, this phrase is associated with two spot colors printing on one sides of a signle sheet of paper or card stock along with a single color on the back. Normally one of the colors from the front is used for the back but again, this is not required.
2/0 - Pronounced two over zero, also known as 1 sided printing with two spot colors on the front of the paper stock.
1/1 - Pronounced one over one, also known as 2 sided printing with one spot color on both sides of the paper stock.
1/0 - Pronounced one over zero, also known as 1 sided printing with one spot colors on the front of the paper stock.
RELATED MISC TOPICS
Is 2-part NCR printed on 1 side considered 1/1 (1 over 1)? - No. The term "1/1" (one over one) refers to printing 1 color on both sides of a single sheet. A one color job printed one side of a NCR sheet is considered 1/0 regardless of the number of parts. A 3-part NCR printed black on the front and nothing on the backside is considered to be printed 1/0.
Can full and spot color be printed on the same sheet? - Technically yes but it depends on the stock. Assuming you want spot color raised, some inks do not adhere card card-body to some stocks. This would be a question for the printing team or quote dept.
Can I print full color on both sides of NCR? - Yes, but the question would be why? Typically no one looks at the back of a form except for legal text. And printing a form on the back of an NCR form would not transfer ink from page to page like when writing on the front.
