Both RGB and CMYK are modes for mixing color in graphic design. As a quick reference, the RGB color mode is best for digital work, while CMYK is used for print products.
Both of these color modes mix colors to create different color possibilities. The main difference is what they are generally used for in design: RGB is the color mode best for digital designs and CMYK is best for printing.
RGB is used in electronic devices, like computer monitors, while printing uses CMYK. When RGB is converted to CMYK, colors can look muted. Designers were often disappointed when their printed piece looked different than what they had been seeing on screen.
This is because there's a wider spectrum of options with RGB color, meaning when you convert to CMYK, there's a chance your printed colors won't exactly match your original intentions. This is why some designers choose to design in CMYK: they can guarantee that the exact colors they're using will be printable.
Because there are no methods for printing in RGB, no matter where you print you must convert your project to a printable format (CMYK). This is a crucial step in the printing process and affects how well your colors are represented in the final product.
Unlike a screen image the brightness of a colour is created by adding additional ink to a solid white substrate rather than changing the intensity of light shining through a pixel. This means a CMYK print can only ever be as bright as the paper it is printed on.
Keep in mind that most modern printers can handle RGB content. Converting to CMYK early won't necessarily ruin the outcome, but might result in the loss of some color gamut, especially if the job is going on a digital press such as the HP Indigo or a wide-gamut device such as a large format inkjet printer.
When designing for a printed format, the best color profile to use is CMYK, which uses the base colors of Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, and Key (or Black).
CMYK Colors – Cyan, Magenta, Yellow & Black
The mixing of CMYK colors is a “SUBTRACTIVE PROCESS” that gives more accurate results than RGB. CMYK images are created by combining actual ink colors during the color printing process.
In short, RGB is best for digital work – the ones you see on your screen and CMYK for print products. However, it's essential to fully understand the mechanics behind each to optimize your designs and understand why the colors you see on your screen and the print colors on the product don't always match.
CMYK is a four-color process and stands for cyan, magenta, yellow and key (black), and is preferred for use on printed materials because it helps achieve a true color. Here, we'll take a closer look at why printers don't all print the same and what you can do to get the best color output possible.
If your design is largely 'grey' in colour (not entirely but largely), you might want to consider designing in CMYK. The reason for this is that in RGB, grey is created using red, green and blue (in mostly equal quantities). In CMYK on the other hand, it will be printed using cyan, yellow and magenta.
For online or mobile printing, the sRGB color profile is the most common and widely supported color profile. It can produce good results for most online or mobile printing services. For inkjet or photo printing, Adobe RGB is a larger and more versatile color profile than sRGB.
There's no question in this area: Black is by far the most-used ink color. Black ink is used for almost all text in a printed document, and many documents like research papers that don't include color graphs may use exclusively black ink.
CMYK is a color model most often used in printing. Also known as the "four-color process", it stands for Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, and Key (or black) and is a subtractive color model, as opposed to an additive color model like RGB. In printing, CMYK reduces the brightness, or reflected light, from a white background.
Because the RGB scheme has a greater range of colors, CMYK cannot produce brighter colors. These hues are beyond the CMYK range and will come out darker and more dull when printed than what you see on your display.
The primary disadvantage of CMYK colours is that it can create fewer colours than for example PMS and RGB, and the colours that it can print are not as specific. So if you are looking to use a specific colour you should rather use the Pantone colour systems.
The reason that onscreen colors look different offscreen is because some colors onscreen cannot be reproduced with CMYK printing. These colors are called “out of gamut.” Example colors are metallics and fluorescents.
In CMYK, blue is one of the most challenging colors to reproduce accurately. We suggest you use even and balanced mixtures, like 100-50-0-0. Otherwise, the result will be a purple or green color.
Low ink or toner levels. Toner sticking to the fuser roller or problems with the transfer roller. Low ink or toner density settings. Low or high humidity.
Ultimately, if you really need to maintain such vibrancy of colors, you must end of with a n-color printing process, CMYK plus additional colorants (bright green and orange, for example).
What is CMYK? Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Black are the colors used in the vast majority of commercial color printing – books, magazines, brochures and more.
The ideal file format choice for print is TIFF, followed closely by PNG.
The industry standard for quality photographs and image is typically 300dpi. For businesses, producing an external document like a brochure, a booklet, or a flyer requires 300dpi. You might be able to get away with 250dpi if you are less concerned with the quality and resolution of the printing.
The CMYK pigments are semi-transparent (such as Process Cyan) or transparent (such as Process Magenta and Process Yellow) and lack the useful quality of opacity liked by artists.