What are Printed Colors?
Printed colors are formed by the union of 4 ink colors, Cyan, Magneta,
Yellow and Black. This is known as CMYK or 4 color process printing.
In recent years this process has been expanded to include more inks,
which increases the spectrum/palette of printable colors available.
Unfortunately printers are not able to faithfully duplicate every CMYK color exactly or continually on every type of print media, due to technology and design limitations. Color standards and printer calibration help to minimize these effects.
Unfortunately printers are not able to faithfully duplicate every CMYK color exactly or continually on every type of print media, due to technology and design limitations. Color standards and printer calibration help to minimize these effects.
What are LCD Monitor Colors?
LCD colors are formed from the union of 3 colors red, green and blue,
in a similiar way your eyes naturally interpret color. This color
system or palette is known as RGB. The set of colors available in
the RGB palette is considerably larger than the colors available
for print in the CMYK palette.
Unfortunately LCD design limitations, quality, software drivers and LCD fatigue often prevent LCDs from accurately displaying RGB colors. Higher end LCDs come with color calibration software to mitigate these factors.
Digital cameras and scanners only produce RGB color images. These images display excellently on LCD monitors.
Unfortunately LCD design limitations, quality, software drivers and LCD fatigue often prevent LCDs from accurately displaying RGB colors. Higher end LCDs come with color calibration software to mitigate these factors.
Digital cameras and scanners only produce RGB color images. These images display excellently on LCD monitors.
How Can I Control Print Colors?
Design your documents and artwork destined for print media with the
CMYK color palette. All current popular graphics and page editing applications
let you choose colors from the RGB palette or the CMYK pallete. Unfortunately
some software more than 3 years old may not have the CMYK palette available.
Save your graphics with the color palette information embedded in the graphics file. Embedding color information is one of the "save options" for most file types in most graphics software.
Obtain proofs and make adjustments.
Designing within the CMYK palette will reduce your choice of colors, but it will give a more accurate design perspective for print media.
Unlike LCD displays, print media colors can be enhanced with the wide variety of print media and textures available.
Save your graphics with the color palette information embedded in the graphics file. Embedding color information is one of the "save options" for most file types in most graphics software.
Obtain proofs and make adjustments.
Designing within the CMYK palette will reduce your choice of colors, but it will give a more accurate design perspective for print media.
Unlike LCD displays, print media colors can be enhanced with the wide variety of print media and textures available.
Do I need to use the CMYK palette?
No. Most documents and graphics submitted to print shops
use the RGB color palette. Scanners and digital cameras only produce
RGB color images.
Westside Instaprint will find the closest matching colors
between the RGB and CMYK palettes for every color in your files.
Photographs and Graphic design effects, transitions, gradients, fades, blurs, anti-aliasing etc.. are ussually not noticablely affected by the RGB to CMYK color transition.
You will most likely notice a color shift in large rich vibrant color areas. Logos often have only a few colors, so you may need a CMYK version of your logo for print media to keep you logo colors consistent every time your logo is re-printed.
Photographs and Graphic design effects, transitions, gradients, fades, blurs, anti-aliasing etc.. are ussually not noticablely affected by the RGB to CMYK color transition.
You will most likely notice a color shift in large rich vibrant color areas. Logos often have only a few colors, so you may need a CMYK version of your logo for print media to keep you logo colors consistent every time your logo is re-printed.
