For example if you intend to output your publication to film using a pre-press service, scanning in your photos directly into the document files is a good idea, otherwise it's a waste of time, and really won't look very good when printed from a laser printed camera ready copy. If you plan to have the project reproduced by offset printing, the more ink colors you use the more expensive the job will be, but a little spot color can go a long way. Consider also the weight, color and finish of the paper used for covers or other pages. Nothing quite says it like quality color printing. The right colors make your business communications more credible and inviting.
Process color is used to reproduce color photographs or pages using more than four different colors.
One separation is made for each color channel. Each separation is itself a monochrome halftone. The expense of process color comes from the fact that four times as many plates are needed per page. Spot color on the other hand does not use as many plates and is therefore cheaper. Spot color uses an ink matching the desired color directly rather than combining tiny colored dots from four channels, and has one separation plate made for each color on the page.