If you’re starting out as a designer, one of the most confusing aspects of computer-based graphic design is the difference between RGB and CMYK color modes, as well as the difference between various file formats.
Although this subject is brought up countless of times in the design blogosphere, I believe it was never explained in a way that’s simple, easy to remember and most importantly, easy to work with.
So here we go.
Turn on the lights – Understanding and using the RGB color model
Simply put, RGB color model is a technology for mixing (R)ed, (G)reen and (B)lue light in order to produce any imaginable color. This technology and color mixing process is used by all computer screens and electronic devices.
How this truly works is beyond the scope of this article. In short, your computer screen, laptop, cellphone and most other electronic devices are small miracles capable of showing millions of colors just by mixing various intensities of red, green and blue light.
Your computer screen is coloring each pixel in this image by mixing different intensities of red, green and blue light. For example, certain purple pixels in this image are rendered by combining RGB values shown on the right.
As a designer, you have direct control over this process because you can manually adjust the RGB intensity of each pixel in order to get the color you want — the higher the values, the brighter the colors (just like turning on more lights gives you a brighter room).
You should always design in RGB color mode if your final artwork is going to be used on computer screens or digital devices. This includes:
- user interfaces
- websites
- web banners
- icons
- any other design piece intended for electronic use
All major design applications offer you instant color model presets for web and other types of RGB artwork.
Check if your document is properly set up for RGB work
When creating a new file, make sure that the new document window shows proper settings:
- For Illustrator: select “Web” in the New Document Profile dropdown
- For Photoshop: select “Web” in the Preset dropdown, then make sure the resolution box shows 72
- For CorelDRAW: select “Web” in the Preset destination dropdown
Deliver final RGB files to client
While JPEG is the format of choice for submitting design entries, the final RGB files should be delivered according to this checklist:
- Website layouts: PSD (zipped)
- User interfaces: PSD (zipped)
- Icons: PNG (include original PSD or AI file if requested by client)
- Web banners: PNG, GIF (include original PSD or AI if requested by client)
Never use TIFF, EPS, PDF or BMP file formats to deliver RGB artwork, as they serve a completely different purpose. Learn more on the different file formats by checking out File Formats Explained: PDF, PNG and More.
Load the inks, check the DPI – the world of CMYK printing
Using RGB is great if your design will be used on screen but if there is even the slightest chance of your artwork is being printed, you need to create files in CMYK color mode.
Each tone and color in the business card above was mixed by layering different amounts of cyan, magenta , yellow and black ink. The illustration on the right shows the ink mixture for a specific hue of green.
Unlike computer screen, a printer cannot use light to paint colors on paper, which is why it has to use the next best thing — plain ole’ ink.
All desktop and professional printers mix four different ink colors — (C)yan, (M)agenta, (Y)ellow and (K)ey (Black) which is abbreviated as CMYK. These four colors can be mixed together in varying amounts and produce thousands of different shades and hues on paper.
But as you can imagine, mixing CMYK inks is very different than mixing RGB lights. For example, if more lights are added to RGB it produces brighter colors where as adding more ink in CMYK produces darker colors. In RGB, White is defined with the maximum value of each color channel (R:255,G:255,B:255), while in CMYK mode it’s defined as a complete lack of color (C:0%,M:0%,Y:0%,K:0% ).
RGB can give you very bright and nice colors (after all, it’s a light show) that are impossible to produce using inks. If you forget about this, you might end up with a great online design that looks quite dull when printed.
This logo was created in RGB but it’s colors are so bright that they cannot be reproduced using CMYK inks. Bad idea.
Luckily, you don’t have to worry about this because your design application can imitate the colors of CMYK printing system and create the appropriate files.
Check if your document is properly set up for CMYK print work
Follow these guidelines when creating documents for print:
- For Illustrator: on the New document window, make sure to select “Print” in the New Document Profile dropdown.
- For InDesign: on the New document window, make sure to select “Print” in the Intent dropdown.
- For CorelDRAW: on the New document window, select “Default CMYK” in the Preset Destination dropdown.
- For Photoshop: on New document window, select RGB as color mode and set resolution to 300 dots per inch. Immediately after that, turn on CMYK color imitation (View > Proof colors). When done, convert your final document to CMYK color mode (Image > Mode > CMYK > Flatten) then save the file under a different name. Use this file to finalize your print design in Illustrator, InDesign or CorelDRAW. Note that you can also create CMYK files right from the start (just pick CMYK mode on the New document window), but this will prevent you from using certain effects and functions.
Why 300 DPI?
Besides CMYK inks, an important piece of the printing world is the image resolution, expressed in DPI or PPI (which stands for Dots Per Inch or Pixels Per Inch, which is the same thing).
Printers are different creatures than computer screens. While computer screens need 72×72 pixels to show a 1×1 inch image (72 DPI), printers need at least 300 pixels for each inch in order to show the image in the same size and quality.
Although it’s quite large on the screen, the image on the left will print well only as 1” x 0.76” thumbnail because quality printing requires at least 300 DPI.
That’s why creating a 10×10 inch image at 300 DPI in Photoshop will give you a file measuring 3,000 pixels in width and height — very large on screen but just 10×10 inches of quality print.
Therefore, always create files at 300 DPI resolution if you intend to print them. Make sure to remember that resizing an existing image to 300 DPI is not an option as it will only duplicate existing pixels and give you a blurry image — you have to create artwork with enough pixels from the very beginning.
If you want to check at which size your existing photos and other artwork can print well, simply divide their pixel dimensions by 300. For example, a 1280 x 1024 pixel photo will print well at 4.26 x 3.42 inches — anything larger than that will make it blurry
Note: you don’t have to worry about DPI for vector objects created in Illustrator or CorelDRAW — they print well at any size. The DPI relates only to bitmap images traditionally handled by Photoshop.
Deliver correct CMYK printing files to client
The industry standard for CMYK file delivery is a properly prepared PDF:
- For Illustrator: Go to File > Save As > “Adobe PDF” from the Save As Type dropdown box. A window will open prompting you to select PDF settings — all you need to do is select “Illustrator Default” from the Adobe PDF preset dropdown box, then hit Save. This will produce PDF file which is both ready for print and editable by Illustrator.
- For InDesign: Go to File > Adobe PDF Presets > Press quality. A window will appear allowing you to adjust many prepress settings, but you can safely hit Export and In Design will create a proper PDF file for professional printing.
- For CorelDRAW: Go to File > Publish to PDF , then pick “Prepress” from the PDF preset dropdown box. This will produce print ready PDF file which can be opened by any Adobe application as well.
In addition to this PDF file, you may export your design to other file formats requested by client (usually EPS or AI), but make sure to communicate that PDF is basically all they need because it can be opened and used by virtually any design software.
Wrapping up
Understanding the difference between RGB and CMYK is an essential piece of design every designer must know.
The bottom line is rather simple: while RGB uses light to mix colors on screen, CMYK uses ink to mix them on paper. These are very different processes but easily managed by your design application if you create the files with proper settings.
Because they are so different, RGB and CMYK have different file formats for final delivery. Learn more about these different file formats by checking out File Formats Explained: PDF, PNG and More.
Do you have any questions about RGB and CMYK file formats? Feel free to ask us in the comments!
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Good post, Explained all CMYK and RGB difference.
Really like it
thanks
I always do my work in RGB mode but when I want to make a CMYK version I just copy my artwork>create new file in CYMK>then paste it there, Is this a valid option?
I also have the same workflow and I’m also wondering is this a valid/professional solution?
Hi Peter, nice article. I think it gives people without knowledge from Colormodes a great introduction. The fact that RGB color are back ligthen and CMYK aren’t is many times confusing for new comers and ends many times with unhappy clients which get printer results they don’t like. If we take a look under the hood its even not finished here! The fact that a CMYK color can look totally different on coated or uncoated paper is also many times a pitfal new designer fall into. On the other side CMYK offers also some great advantage such as spot Colors which makes it possible to print for example with metallic colors. Looking forward to your next article, mate
Hi Jurgen, thanks for mentioning all that – this article is really just a tip of the iceberg when it comes to CMYK and its specific possibilities. You are definitely the expert in that area, so I would recommend everybody to read your articles in addition to this one.
That “View > Proof colors” in Photoshop just saved my life, thank you!
That’s great! Cheers :)
Great post, very helpful, because I’m new in this “business” and on 99designs. Thanks so much! But, can you, please, make a post (or someone of more experienced designers can explain to me) about one thing that keeps bothering me constantly: I see a lot of designers submitting thier designs for logo contests with some colors and shades that can’t (or I think so) be created with CMYK color palette. Especially shades of green. In the CMYK palette there is no that very bright shades of green (which can make logo look so great)! There is only darker shades of green (with them my ideas cannot look as I’ve imagined them in the start how they should look like). :-(
I find those shades that I need in the RGB palette, but they can’t be used for logo designs (especially for print), right??? I’m using CorelDraw X5.
What should I do? Please help! Thanks so much to anyone who can make this clear to me!
Greetings from Serbia!
Hi Bane,
your assumptions are correct – bright green RGB colors CANNOT be used successfully in CMYK printing, otherwise you will get a result quite similar to the “Bad Idea” example above.
Always make sure you’re working with CMYK color pallete, and feel free to warn other designers next time you see this problem.
Hope this helps!
giggidy
Very Nice Information, Thanks a lot Peter ;)
Cheers
Thanks for your answer, Peter.
Of course it helps, and you have confirmed my suspicions. I just wonder if any of designers had problems with their clients, because there was tens and tens of winning designs that I saw at large number of designers in their “winning designs” profile page. Maybe there is some solution for that bright colors of green, that I don’t know. I’ve heard about using some of the PANTONE palettes (in CorelDRAW) with those “problematic” colors, that can stay the same after printing. And combining regular CDR CMYK colors with some PANTONE palettes could solve problem for graphics that is meant for printing too.
Would be nice if someone who knows the “solution” could share with us… Cheers!
agree
the problem that we can’t convert PNG files to CMYK
Very Nice Information, Thanks a lot ABDUL WAHID KHAN
The graphic and text in the article is incorrect. The “K” in CMYK is not derived from the “K” in Black.
Hi Carl! Yes, you are correct… the “K” stands for Key (Black). I believe Peter was trying to represent it so the viewers could remember that the colors are in fact Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and BlacK. I changed it in the text so that it’s more clear. Thanks for bringing it to our attention. Cheers!
No worries, sorry to be so pedantic :) It’s definitely how I first learned it too. I just find the real reason so much more interesting! (Like why leading is called leading, etc)
I think Peter just want to make it more easier for the readers. Also the reason why its not B for Black is to
avoid any confusion with Blue like rgB ;)
Thanks Carl, you are absolutely right, I just didn’t want to introduce the “key” concept in this article :) But I see now that things should be called properly regardless of my intention, so thanks for the comment!
I have a problem, my designs look darker when I post them on contest on 99, so I am interested can you show us, or link it, full color settings steps. I just want that my designs look same when i post them on contest and in my screen.
very useful, thanks
Great Article…understand now why my prints came out the way they did for my t-shirt design..thanks
that all my problem, thank you for the article
This is really useful. I’m so glad I found this site. ^^
great article.but I have a question which is the value in cmyk that can be used to print the blackest black. I have heard that the default black in illustrator is not the blackest black that can be got.
check out my tutorial for this :) http://99designs.com/designer-blog/2011/12/07/the-color-black-in-print-design/
Thanks… :)
It’s really nice article..
can you please answer the question of mspunk. i’m new at designing and i’m thinking of the same workflow. Thanks!
I have worked in print for a while and I do recommend that if your design or artwork is for print that you always work in CMYK. One reason, as stated in the article above, is that when converting from RGB to CMYK you will get a difference in the colour output. RGB colours have a nice bright, electric look and once converted to CMYK that colour will dull. When I email clients a proof of their artwork I often tell them that the colour they see onscreen will not be the same when the artwork prints. It is a good idea to set up your layout for the medium in which it is intended whether it be print or web. I do suggest working always in CMYK for print because sometimes a client may have a logo with a very specific CMYK colour breakdown. If you work in RGB you will not be able to match that breakdown particularly when you convert from RGB to CMYK. Beesides, working in RGB and then pasting the artwork into a CMYK document is only giving you more work to do. Why not cut a step of the process and simply start in CMYK?
:D its nice.. plain and simple.
I had a headache attack, because of think of it before (when to start working with RGB or CMYK?) :L
After reading your article and the response from readers, I’m straight .. Sleeping Beauty, so peaceful. :D Hopefully my reaction is not excessive (Hhh..) but at least you will also laugh with it :D, it’s healthy by the way. Thank you for sharing, and very helpful. Will wait for your next article.
Cheers,
Ramdhani.
the thing is the client always want design in web & print both ! and they always like light colors
solution —> tell to client about darker output & try to change color to make more similarity ;)
I am a beginner in graphic design, when I designed in Corel Draw not so bright colors but when I made the png why the color becomes light and does not match the color while still in corel draw
GBU thanks
Dear all,
I would also like to say a word concerning this everlasting discussion about RGB and CMYK.
I’m a new member of the 99design community, so I would like to contribute to the knowledge of the whole community with the experience I gained.
While reading these comments I recalled 1995 and my first “serious” graphic prepress for color printing. I still remember my disappointment while seeing first printings coming out of the machine. The sky on the flyer was purple instead blue. The brown trees were dark grey…
Long story short, I believe everyone here knows that we differentiate vector and raster graphics. The vector graphics are pretty easy to explain.
As Peter said, all of you working in Corel have to publish the document to PDF and there choose the option Prepress. I would like to add something to Peter’s statement. Another important fact is that you have to click “Always overprint black” at the color option.
Why is this “Always overprint black” that important? If you have a photograph that has a black text written over it, and you don’t click this option “Always overprint black”, the photograph will be printed with white fillings on the place where the text should be, so the text will literary have to be inserted into this white gaps. This isn’t such a problem if you are printing on a 4-color machine, but if you aren’t working on such a machine (although this is no guarantee for success), while printing the text can be shifted and you don’t have a 100 % guarantee that it will match the gaps. The printers often go crazy because of it… (in my beginnings I often drove some printers crazy with it). The point is, while printing the paper sops water and ink. On the places without color, a very thin layer of water is being inflicted, because of what the paper stretches. That is the reason why the white gaps can’t be rightfully filled with the fourth, black color because of which unwanted white outlines around the letters incur. That can sometimes look really awful.
There is another thing I would like to point out (this is completely individual i.e. my practical experience being the head of prepress in a printing house over 15 years).
Particularly, a color photograph could in theory be printed in three colors C.M.Y., however given that we can’t get the color of black from mixing those three, but a dark grey, we are filling this color “gap” by adding black, which is the reason black is called K, as in KEY in the CMYK mode.
When the photograph is being printed it should look realistic without the black, but the black is good for sharpening and enchasing the dark surfaces. That is why I have a little trick (as I already said, this is my personal experience). In theory, every color C.M.Y.K. has the value of 100 (this number is not the percentage, but value). Since I like my photographs to be a little bit emphasized and “live” I suggest you click in Photoshop Edit, Color Settings and then Working Spaces in the menu. Choose the option CMYK and select Custom CMYK from the panel. In the Separation Options decrease the option Black Ink Limits from 100 to 50, and increase the Total Ink Limit to 350…
You will reduce the rate between black and other colors by this, so the C.M.Y. will “overtake” one part of black and make the picture more “open”, what isn’t the case when there is too much black.
And at the end, to all beginners who want to practice graphic design and prepress more seriously, I would recommend to initiate with the “Color atlas” which is a great example and manual how the CMYK colors function in practice, i.e. in printing.
Thank you for your patience while reading this. If you have any technical questions concerning prepress, feel free to ask me and I will gladly answer your questions.
I’m sorry for my English, that isn’t too great, but I hope you got my message…
Thanks,
Alexander von Ness
Hi Alexander,
thanks for your helpful explanation! You mentioned “Color Atlas”. Is that a book? And if it is, do you know the name of the author?
Thanks,
Bane86
Pozdrav Bane…
Evo vidjeh tvoj prijašnji post pa da ti odgovorim na našem jeziku… Atlas boja u principu nema autora… To nije nekakva knjiga nego jednostavno rečeno, naštampane stranice sa svim mogućim kombinacijama CMYK boja. Tako kada ti treba određena boja, pronađeš je na svojoj stranici u Atlasu i njene vrijednosti ukucaš u Photoshop, Corel, Illustrator… Što se tiče Corela, nevjerojatno je koliko on “laže boje”. Kod nas je to svojevremeno izdao “Studio Žiljak” iz Zagreba, također ja koristim jedan stari od “Gorenjski tisk” iz Ljubljane. Inače, ako si stvarno zainteresiran svrati do neke tiskare pa tamo malo pogledaj o čemu se radi(to bi trebala imati svaka ozbiljna tiskara). I još da ti napomenem da je to dosta skupa kjnižica, cca. 200-300 eura. (Kad sam bio u Milanu u Italiji na sajmu grafike, vidio sam Atlas boja od 1000 Eura!)
Pozdrav iz Rijeke…
Ooooo, kakva slučajnost! Nema ništa bez nas iz bivse Juge,a? :-) Hvala puno na objašnjenju, cenim to! Ja sam relativno nov na 99designs, tek sam 6 meseci prisutan. Dosta sam naučio za ovo vreme, imao do sad 8 finala od 50tak učešća. Tri puta baš bio blizu da pobedim, ali me i dalje muči problem koji sam predstavio u svoja dva komentara na ovaj tekst, ali na žalost nisam dobio odgovor koji mi je potreban. Ti, kao čovek sa prilično iskustva, možda mi možes dati potrebne odgovore. Oba moja komentara, a ujedno i pitanja, napisao sam 22.02. tako da nećeš imati problem da ih pronađeš. Bio bih ti neverovatno zahvalan ako mi odgonetneš kako ti silni dizajneri pobediše sa tim nijansama boja o kojima pričam, odnosno da li postoji neka posebna paleta koju mogu koristiti u Korelu (uz CMYK) kako bih dobio nijanse koje sam pomenuo? Inače radim u Korelu, ali sam počeo učiti Ilustrator pre par dana jer vidim da ima neverovatno vise mogućnosti nego Korel. Ipak, verovatno je i u njemu problem sa tim bojama isti. Jednostavno, kako postići npr. tu zelenu o kojoj sam pisao gore u oba programa kada se radi nesto sto treba ići u štampu???
Unapred hvala i pozdrav za tebe iz Valjeva.
can i use photoshop for logo because someone told me that you have make vector logo file which is used only photoshop but i can make much more better logo in photoshop because there are lots of tools there could you please help me about that,
Hi i am new to designing please anyone recomend me best software i should use to create exellent logos
Hi akhilesh,
A really good program for logos is Adobe Illustrator: http://bit.ly/GVMXor. You should check it out!
Cheers,
Alli
Thnx allison for reff.
each file when printed digitally rgb why the results are far from a computer screen
I think about colors which used in the logo designers. For example That a leader in the contest “OpenRisk”. He obtained five stars. Color blu is’t CMYK mode. So it is possible?
Lot of info.
Thank You Peter Vukovic.
Thanks a lot for this article. Really helpful.