The CMYK color system is mostly used with print design work like magazines or books. Nowadays, most at-home printers and high-end color laser printers use these 4 colored inks to print texts and images.
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.
In conclusion, CMYK is the industry standard for printing because of the science behind the color space and the substrate. Ink on paper must use the CMYK color space to achieve the optimum results by creating an unlimited number and shades of color.
The two processes have different ranges of color, with RGB providing a wider array of possibilities. RGB is used in electronic devices, like computer monitors, while printing uses CMYK.
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.
The reason printing uses CMYK comes down to an explanation of the colors themselves. CMY will cover most lighter color ranges quite easily, compared to using RGB. However, CMY by itself can't create very deep dark colors like “true black,” so black (designated “K” for “key color”) is added.
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.
While progress in flexibility has been made, CMYK conversion is still required when sending out your artwork and images for commercial printing. And converting everything to CMYK before you send your files to print can also guarantee that the printed results match your expectations.
CMYK (Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, Key/Black) is the colour space for printed materials, so you should be using the CMYK colour profile for any design that will be physically printed. A printing press creates images by combining CMYK colours to a varying degree using physical ink which is known as subtractive mixing.
Currently, the Pantone colors palette includes a total of over 1,800 different colors. This numeric system creates a more accurate color match than other systems, making it perfect for brand identity work.
CMYK is an acronym for Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, and Black, which is the most common color type in the printing industry. Printing presses use these four base colors in some combination to produce millions of color shades and hues.
For printing perfectionists looking for consistent color, Pantone is the one for you. But for print jobs where the quantity and detail of color choices are key, CMYK is the best choice.
In a nutshell, CMYK works best for printed materials such as flyers, brochures and signage. It stands for Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Black, which are four inks that offset printers use as standard.
The CMYK color model (process color, four color) is a subtractive color model, based on the CMY color model, used in color printing, and is also used to describe the printing process itself. CMYK refers to the four ink plates used in some color printing: cyan, magenta, yellow, and key (black).
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.
To confirm that your file uses RGB, go to Photoshop's Image tab. Once the dropdown menu appears, go to Mode. Then look at the checked profile. That's how you know if your image uses either RGB or CMYK.
CMYK colors are subtractive, meaning the colors get darker as they are blended together. The combination of equal amounts of CMY creates black, but not a true black due to the impurities of the inks. Therefore, K (black) is added to the other three colors in printing.
Can you convert RGB to CMYK without losing color? You cannot convert between RGB and CMYK without some amount of color difference of some sort. It's a good idea to do test prints of your work with a high quality printer to see how your colors turn out.
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.
CYMK Profile
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). These colors are usually expressed as percentages of each base color, for example a deep plum color would be expressed like this: C=74 M=89 Y=27 K=13.
Key or key plate is an old-school printing term that refers to the printing plate with the most detail. That plate was commonly used for the color black. The plate was used to line up the color registration of the printing plates for the other colors; therefore, it was called the key plate.
If your printouts have incorrect colors, try these solutions: Make sure the paper type setting matches the paper you loaded. Make sure the Black/Grayscale or Grayscale setting is not selected in your printer software. Run a nozzle check to see if any of the print head nozzles are clogged.
If you're wanting to convert an image from RGB to CMYK, then simply open the image in Photoshop. Then, navigate to Image > Mode > CMYK.
Digital printing uses CMYK (Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Key*), so although the latest digital printing processes can get near, they will not create an exact Pantone Colour match.
The drawback of using Pantone colours is that due to the materials and procedure required to use them, they do cost significantly more than four-colour printing and can extend lead times.