Understanding spot and process colors
While some print devices can output QuarkXPress layouts in full color, final production for many publishing environments takes the form of color separation plates reproduced on-press using color inks.
QuarkXPress separation plates
You can specify two types of color in a project: Spot color and process color. When you print a page that contains spot colors, QuarkXPress includes all characters, pictures, and items of a given spot color on the same spot color separation plate. When a layout contains items to which you have applied a process color, QuarkXPress separates the color into the appropriate number of process ink components, and prints a process separation plate of each ink component for every page in your layout. If, for example, your pages contain items to which a single spot color has been applied as well as items to which you have applied four-color process colors, the application will print five separation plates for each page that contains the colors: The cyan, magenta, yellow, and black process separation plates, plus another plate that contains page elements to which the spot color is applied.