Color Printing: RGB and CMYK

Color is color, right? Wrong! Depending on your application and use, there are two main color referencing formats you will come across: RGB and CMYK. These two color formats are for completely different uses, but the result of the two formats is the same to our eyes.

How do you know when each is being used? How does this influence your color printing projects? These issues and others are the point of this discussion as we delve into the finer points of color printing.

RGB: the primary colors of light
RGB is an acronym for Red, Green, and Blue: the primary colors of light. When your computer monitor or television screen reproduces images, the three primary colors are mixed together in varying shades and strengths. The important distinction here is that light, rather than ink, is used to reproduce an image. Just because a picture looks one way on a monitor or television screen does not mean that it will be reproduced accurately on paper.

CMYK: the primary colors of ink
CMYK is an acronym for Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, and Black: the primary colors of ink. When your printer reproduces images, the four primary colors of ink are mixed together in varying shades and strengths.
You are probably noticing the pattern about now in that RGB and CMYK do the same thing in a different way. What you have to understand is that RGB references light and CMYK is ink.

What all of this means
You cannot print in RGB and you cannot view pictures an a monitor in CMYK. So, to answer our first question of how to know when you are using which color format, monitors display in RGB and printers display in CMYK.

A conversion process has to take place to go from viewing pictures on a monitor to view the same pictures in print. What’s more, the conversion is not always perfect or accurate. In response to the second question about how this impacts color printing: there may be differences between what you see on the monitor and what you get back from the print shop. You can compensate for this by calibrating your monitor and through printing proofs to make sure your work is translating properly.

RGB and CMYK are fundamentally different. RGB is how monitors display light. CMYK is how printers reproduce images in ink. You can make sure your color printing turns out as expected by using a calibrated monitor and by printing proofs to check for any color variations.

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Kaye Z. Marks is an avid writer and follower of the developments in the color printing industry and its benefits for small to medium-scale businesses.

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Color Printing: RGB and CMYK

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