Definition:
Desktop color separations or DCS is an enhanced EPS file format. Not used as much these days, the DCS format is still necessary for some types of graphics work. With DCS a CMYK graphic is separated into five files: one grayscale image for each of the CMYK process colors plus an FPO file with preview that goes into the page layout document.
DCS can be useful for working with images where you need work with multiple channels, such as applying different spot colors to each parts of a grayscale image.
Also Known As: desktop color separation | multi-channel
