| Lots of graphics programs provide the opportunity to | | | | combination of all the colors to give you a darker black |
| work in an RGB (Red, Green, Blue) or CMYK (Cyan, | | | | known as Rich Black. The most common ratio of |
| Magenta, Yellow, Black) color space. To understand | | | | colors to get rich back was popularized by Adobe |
| each set of colors we need to understand how they | | | | Photoshop which uses this ink mixture when |
| are used and why they are used. | | | | converting RGB black to CMYK (C=63%, M=52%, |
| RGB Color Spaces | | | | Y=51%, K=100%.) |
| When working with RGB you are literally working with | | | | When to use RGB or CMYK |
| light. Recalling from school when you shine white light | | | | Knowing when to use RGB and when to use CMYK |
| through a prism you get different color spectrums. The | | | | can save you lots of time and headache and the rule |
| most basic colors are Red, Green and Blue. The colors | | | | is very simple. If your purpose is to display images and |
| are measured my intensity on a scale of 0-255 for all | | | | colors on a computer monitor (slide shows, web |
| three colors (255³ or 16 million colors). If you have | | | | pages, movies, power point presentations, emailing |
| no color (R=0, G=0, B=0) you get black, if you have | | | | flyers, scanning pictures) use RGB. If you are going to |
| 100% of all three colors (R=255, G=255, B=255) you | | | | be printing images and colors they need to be in |
| get white. | | | | CMYK (although printers can convert the images for |
| CMYK Color Spaces | | | | you you may incur additional charges or unexpected |
| When working with CMYK you are working with | | | | results since there are many colors in RGB that |
| pigment and that is why it's used for printing. Pretty | | | | cannot be replicated in CMYK. |
| much all color printers (inkjets, laser printers, dye-sub | | | | What's the problem? |
| printers, and even full color offset and web presses) | | | | The main challenge with the two color spaces is in the |
| use CMYK. Some printers come with more than one | | | | printing. RGB colors that are bright and vibrant are |
| shade of Cyan and/Magenta in order to achieve more | | | | normally much duller when printed in CMYK (after all |
| color combinations but they are all basically CMYK | | | | since RGB is light itself you are never going to get a |
| printers. All CMYK colors are based on the paper | | | | brighter image on paper.) The toughest colors to |
| being printed on being white. CMYK is measured in | | | | reproduce for CMYK is blue and red. On the screen |
| percentages from 0% to 100% for all 4 colors. If you | | | | RGB blue looks bright and very blue, on paper |
| have no color (C=0%, M=0%, Y=0%, K=0%) you are | | | | however you end up with navy blue instead. If you |
| left with white (the blank paper.) To make Black you | | | | ever printed out a webpage with blue links on it you |
| can either use 100% Black and 0% of all the other | | | | know exactly what I'm talking about. |
| colors (know as standard black) or you can use a | | | | Is there a solution to the RGB to CMYK problem? |
