The coloured circles on food packages can come in a variety of colours: Pink, yellow, blue, black, orange, purple, or green, in varying shades of light and dark. Apparently, those coloured shapes are called ‘printer’s colour blocks’ or ‘process control patches,’ and they’re there to help the printing team who prints the food packaging.
No matter what one calls them, they ultimately serve the same purpose: making sure that the colours used to print packaging are up to par by testing how a certain set of ‘process colours’ are coming out. Basically, they are a design checklist to scan before shipping said product out the door.
Often, that means you will see circles of black, magenta, cyan, and yellow, which can combine to form a wide variety of hues.
Though these circles may just look like splotches of colour to the untrained eye, each apparently contains a wealth of information that those in the know can use to assess printing performance.
In essence, if a colour is coming out a bit too wonky to match how it's supposed to appear on the bag or box, printers can spot the issue and change course on the fly, by either adding more of a given colour or taking it away.
Sometimes machines can ‘read’ these colours and determine if the course needs to be corrected, especially in more modern printing practices.
When the packaging is printed, technicians use the coloured circles to check that the printing ink is the correct colour and quality. They compare the colour to boxes printed around the world to ensure consistent brand colours
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