Colour

DIY printing is currently suspended due to the Covid-19 pandemic, but we can do your printing for you to collect from our doorstep for no extra charge. Just contact us to arrange.

Using coloured ink or toner in your printing can really brighten it up and make it eye catching and attractive. There are two different types of colour printing you can do at the Resource Centre –  spot colour printing for larger (and cheaper) print runs, or full colour.

Full colour printing

Full colour printing is what you need if you are printing something with lots of different colours close together, such as colour photos or detailed graphics.

To do this kind of printing at the Resource Centre you can use our laser printer.

Tips for full colour printing

  • A4 or SRA4 (200g only) printing: our laser printer leaves a small white border all around the sheet on A4 (100g, 160g, 200g, 300g); if your image goes right to the edge of the page, we have SRA4 in 200g paper available.
  • A3 printing: our laser printer leaves a small white border all around the sheet (6mm all round). Bear this in mind when designing your artwork. If your image goes right to the edge of the page, it will need to be either shrunk or cropped. 
  • Full colour printing is much more expensive than black and white. If you choose to pay for full colour, think about ways to get the best value out of this. If you print a page of black text with a small colour logo, this will cost as much as a full page photo.
  • Use the right paper. Although we have a range of papers that can be used in the laser copier, our white paper (100g / 160g / 200g / 300g) absorbs coloured toner best. Full colour copies do not come out as well on 80g paper.
  • See our artwork page for more tips on designing your artwork.

Long runs of full colour printing

If you are printing more than 150 copies, our bulk copying prices mean that the per-copy price is cheaper. See our price list for details.

For large quantities, you may find it cheaper to use a commercial digital colour printing service. You’re always welcome to ask our front desk staff for advice.

Spot colour printing

Spot colour printing is much cheaper than full colour, and can really brighten up your printing. Spot colour works by printing one colour onto the paper, and then another colour. This creates a document with two different colours on. It is really effective if you would like sections of colour, such as coloured headings, borders or single coloured graphics. You can also use spot colour to print all your artwork in any colour we have, for the same price as black and white printing (e.g. instead of printing in black ink, you could print in red ink).

Spot colour printing is available at the Resource Centre in red, green, and maroon.

Spot colour printing is done on a copyprinter. More information about designing artwork for spot colour printing is available on our artwork page.