Printing business cards

If I have a photograph on a business card created in Illustrator, how do I know if the print shop can print it in "4 color process" or "2 color process"? What is "Spot PMS color"? Is that the same as "2 color process"?

Is there a price difference between all these including "just black and white"? I would think there is a price difference, but how the online print shops all display one single price and did not ask me whether I want 4 or 2 color or b/w or whether I have a photo in my design or not?

alot of online printers do a quantity price. as long as you order alot they dont care.

All the business cards I have ever gotten printed have been in a .tiff format. There has been no bother with spot colour (normally for screen printers). As for colour process I always do the designs in CMYK in Illustrator, this is a 4 colour process.

4 colour process means it uses all 4 inks (cyan, magenta, yellow & black). 4 colour process means the cmyk code has a value for each. you could do a straight run of nothing but flat orange and it will be the same price as printing your photograph is your orange has 4 values for the cmyk.

2 colour would be like c:0 m:100 y:0 k:50.

i'd think that asking the print shop in mind might provide more answer as well. i have had several shops handle printing slightly differently.