Colour is an incredibly precise process. Did you know that there are three main colour systems and they all have different purposes?
In short –
CMYK – is for printed materials, RGB is for digital materials, and there’s Pantone or PMS for when you need an exact match to a particular colour, especially bright metallic, neon and pastel colours.
Have you seen our video neatly summing up the differences between the different colour systems? I highly recommend it!
CMYK or Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, Black
The CMYK model is the standard used across the printing industry. It is a system for ink, not computer screens. It is a subtractive method, which means that each additional colour means more light is removed to create it. When you have added 100% of each colour, you will have black.
When you send us your print ready files, it must be in CMYK. If it isn’t, we will either ask you to convert it, or the printer will convert it for you, and the results are often not the colours you had intended.
RGB or Red, Green, Blue
RGB is a colour system designed for light emitting screens. It is called an additive colour space because you start with a black screen and add the combinations of red, green and blue light to create different colours. When all the colours are combined and you reach 100% of those colours, you have a white screen.
It is more vibrant than CMYK because it is working with light, rather than ink. Which is why the proofs we email to you can look duller on your computer than the final printed materials. There is also variation in RGB colours from screen to screen as different monitors can be calibrated differently.
Pantone (PMS)
Originally developed for grahic designers, Pantone is a standardized color matching system that ensures consistent colours across multiple materials including printing, textiles, plastics, pigments, and coatings.
If colour is critical the only way to get a perfect match is to use Pantone, and get hard copy proofs produced. For the vast majority of people, are more than happy with standard results but if you are really particular about your colour, make sure you speak to us and there are a few tricks we can use to improve the results!
Contact us to discuss the colour options for your printing
