{"id":2863,"date":"2015-04-25T18:50:33","date_gmt":"2015-04-25T18:50:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.theswitch.us\/blog\/?p=2863"},"modified":"2015-04-30T15:09:45","modified_gmt":"2015-04-30T15:09:45","slug":"image-concepts-rgb-cmyk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/switch.us\/blog\/image-concepts-rgb-cmyk\/","title":{"rendered":"Image Concept #3 \u2013 RGB vs. CMYK"},"content":{"rendered":"
“Red, white and blue” evokes a very specific color palette for Americans. Patriotism 101, right? But as it turns out, real-world application of color theory can be complex, especially among devices.<\/address>\n

 <\/p>\n

This post is the third installment of a four-part series on image concepts that often elicit confusion and frustration. We kicked off our adventure with a detailed look at the technical, sometimes confusing topic of image resolution<\/a>. Then we switched gears in part two and explored the difference between vector and raster images.<\/a><\/p>\n

Let’s cover a topic that bleeds into most other areas of our lives: color. While most of us have been identifying different shades and hues since we first toddled around, there is a lot about color you may not know \u2013 particularly with images. There are two different color modes (or spaces, or gamuts) that an image can have:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. RGB (Red, Green, and Blue) – These are the primary colors of light and are also the colors that make up the pixels in any digital display or video screen. This is the mode you want to be in if you\u2019re designing for digital.<\/li>\n
  2. CMYK (Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, and Black) – These are the colors of ink, dye, or pigment used in what is commonly called \u201c4-color process\u201d printing. This is the mode you want to be in if you\u2019re designing for print. If you’ve ever purchased replacement ink cartridges for a home printer, you might already be familiar with these four colors.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    \"colormodels-1.jpg\"<\/p>\n

    Continuing our America the Beautiful theme, imagine if I asked you to paint Old Glory on white canvas using only Red, Green and Blue paint\u2026 No problem, right? Ignore the Green paint altogether, and just use the Blue around the stars and the Red for every other stripe.<\/p>\n

    But what if I gave you only these paint colors?<\/p>\n

    \"shutterstock_19964131.jpg\"<\/p>\n

    Well, you might already know that Yellow+Magenta=Red, and Cyan+Magenta=Blue, so you\u2019ll mix those up and be on your way.<\/p>\n

    \"RGB-CMYK.png\"<\/p>\n

    But will your flag look as good? Probably not. Why? Color gamuts. This color theory term describes a range of colors that a particular device can reproduce. A phone screen, for example, has a larger gamut than your home printer.<\/p>\n

    \"Untitled.png\"\"rgb-cmyk.jpg\"<\/p>\n

    See how the CMYK space is the smallest in the chart on the left? That means it can produce the smallest range of color. That\u2019s why the CMYK colors are far duller in the color comparison on the right.<\/p>\n

    So the American Red & Blue paint that you used in your first painting are going to be way brighter and more vivid than what you were able to mix up the second time around. The two would probably look a little like this side-by-side:<\/p>\n

    \"Flag-RGB-CMYK.jpg\"<\/p>\n

    What does it all mean?!<\/h2>\n

    When designing for digital screens, make sure your program is set to RGB mode to get the maximum vibrancy for your images. If you’re want images printed, they should be in CMYK mode. Anytime you go from RGB to CMYK, you\u2019re going to lose vibrancy in color. You have to decide whether or not to design for the lowest common denominator and use only colors that can be reproduced accurately in CMYK. Otherwise, that new neon green logo is going to look pretty drab on all those banners you just had printed.<\/p>\n

    For more from Steve, send a note to\u00a0SteveK@TheSwitch.us<\/a>.<\/h2>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    “Red, white and blue” evokes a very specific color palette for Americans. It’s Patriotism 101. But as it turns out, real-world application of color theory can be complex, especially among devices.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":2869,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,1,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2863","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-featured-home","category-how-to"],"yoast_head":"\nImage Concept #3 \u2013 RGB vs. CMYK - sw:tch blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\""Red, white and blue" evokes a very specific color palette for Americans. 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