CMYK is a color profile designed for printingwith ink. such as paper printing includes paper shopping bag, cardboard display, paper packaging box ect. CMYK comes from the four colors that make up the model: cyan, magenta, yellow, and key. Key represents the color black. Since “B” is taken by “blue” in the RGB model, the last letter of the word “black” is used instead of the first.Saving your file in the CMYK color mode will ensure the most accurate print. Black is used in this color mode because even the purest combination of cyan, magenta, and yellow (all lighter colors) cannot create a fully black color.

CMYK uses subtractive colors, not additive. Adding colors together in CMYK mode has the opposite effect on the result as RGB does; the more color added, the darker the results. Therefore, colors are taken away, or subtracted, to create a light result.

This is because the CMYK colors absorb light, meaning that more ink results in less light. Combining cyan, magenta, and yellow will create a deep brown. It isn’t until key (black) is added that color is removed completely.

The CMYK values are measured in percentages. For example, to make the CMYK color white, the values should be entered into the design software as:

C: 100%

M: 100%

Y: 100%

K: 100%

RGB is another color profile used for screen display, just like mobile phone, TV as well as computer screen. However, this profile is created using light rather than ink. Computer screens create colors using red, green, and blue lights. The screen you’re reading this article on is made up of hundreds of pixels. These pixels come together to display the words and images that you see.RGB values are displayed in a range between 0 – 255, meaning that there are 256 levels of each of the three colors (red, green, and blue) that can be combined together to create a color on the spectrum between black and white. This means that there are over sixteen million possible colors in the RGB color mode. That’s a lot of options.

For example, the RGB value for the color black is:

R: 0

G: 0

B: 0

This means that there is 0% red light, 0% green light, and 0% blue light. In other words, there is a complete absence of light, resulting in black.

To create white, a designer should input:

R: 255

G: 255

B: 255

This is the highest possible value of each color, meaning that red, green, and blue lights are 100% bright, resulting in the maximum presence of light: white.

The more color added in CMYK mode, the darker the result. The more color added to RGB, the lighter the result. CMYK has a numerical range of 4×100; RGB has a numerical range of 3×256. Therefore, the energetic colors that RGB can produce are difficult to reproduce in CMYK.When designing, the biggest mistake you could make is forgetting to convert to the appropriate color mode for your project. If you forget to do this, colors could appear washed out or too vibrant.

When files are uploaded to be printed using RGB, our systems will automatically convert them to CMYK. However, we recommend converting the colors yourself. Since all colors do not convert the same, converting the profile yourself allows you to make color adjustments and have a better understanding of the final print outcome.

If your file is going to be printed, it needs to be set up in CMYK color mode. How can you make sure your file is set up in CMYK?

Below are the steps to check your print files using popular Adobe design software.

Adobe Photoshop – Image > Mode > CMYK Color
Adobe Illustrator – File > Document Color Mode > CMYK Color