Blend Mode

A Blend Mode determines how to objects are blended into each other. The object containing the blend mode is called the blend object, the underlying objects are called the base objects. The result is called the blend color.

There are two types of blend mode
  • Separable blend modes: the term separable means that the blend mode is applied on each separation of the blend object towards the base object. In a separated color space such as CMYK, such blend modes are calculated on all 4 separations.
  • Non-separable blend modes: the term non-separable means that the all colors are considered as one component to calculate the blend color.

    Non-separable blend modes are Hue, Saturation, Color and Luminosity. All others are separable ones. The formulas of Non-separable blend modes are based on HSL conversions, meaning that the CMYK components are converted to their complementary RGB components, the formula is applied and converted back to CMYK. This can result in additional CMY or K separations even if they are not used in the document.