RGB, CMYK, and PMS... the Alphabet of Color Ne of the More Difficult Tasks We Face When Reproducing Your Printed Material Is to Be Certain the Color Is Ocorrect
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May 2006 RGB, CMYK, and PMS... the Alphabet of Color ne of the more difficult tasks we face when reproducing your printed material is to be certain the color is Ocorrect. When we are printing your business stationery, it is critical that the color remains consistent for the first and each subsequent printing. When printing your company brochure or newsletter, the color on the finished piece TechneGraphics, Inc. Park 50 TechneCenter must conform to your expectations. And if we are 2002 Ford Circle printing in full color – especially photographs or Milford, OH 45150 food or people’s skin tones – a good color match (513) 248-2121 is essential. Fax (513) 248-5141 So why is color matching such a problem? The Web site: answer lies in a combination of how color is www.techgra.com created and how the human eye perceives color. File Transfer site: www.tgidirect.net What is color? Color is caused by light; without light, color 10 o’clock. Between the primary colors are the FTP site: would not exist. In turn, light is a form of energy. ftp.techgra.com secondary colors – cyan, magenta, and yellow. Visible light – the part of the electromagnetic Email: energy spectrum whose wavelengths our eyes can RGB: the colors of television screens and [email protected] detect – is blue at one end and red at the other. computer monitors All the colors in nature we perceive fall along the RGB stands for red, green and blue – the primary spectrum from blue to red. colors of visible light. A television screen or computer monitor that begins as black creates Light that appears white (such as light from the color by generating electrons that produce sun) is really composed of many colors which thousands of red, green, and blue phosphor dots become visible if passed through a glass prism. within the monitor’s screen. If all the phosphors Would you like The prism causes the wavelengths to bend, are illuminated simultaneously, the screen turns more tips? each at a slightly different angle, producing the white. Mix the phosphors in combinations and at Try our weekly email spectrum of visible light. different intensities and you produce all the colors newsletter – Tuesday you see on the screen with more or less saturation. Tips. To be added to When the visible portion of the spectrum is Turn off all the phosphors and the screen turns divided into thirds, the predominant colors are the mailing list, send black. blue, green, and red. When arranged in a circle any email message to or color wheel, blue, green, and red form a triangle: [email protected] Because adding equal amounts of red, green, and red at 2 o’clock; blue at 6 o’clock; and green at blue phosphors creates white light, RGB color RGB, CMYK, and PMS...the Alphabet of Color (continued) is called additive color. Additive color starts with Whereas cyan, magenta, and yellow inks are darkness (black) and mixes red, green, and blue combined in various percentages to produce a light to produce all other colors. When combined specific color, a PMS or spot color ink is one single in equal amounts, red, green, and blue appear hue. In addition, the inks used for spot color are white. opaque rather than translucent and so do not allow white light to pass through. “... process printing CMYK: the colors of process printing CMYK stands for cyan, magenta, yellow and inks use pigments Why RGB colors don’t always reproduce as black. Three of these – cyan, magenta and yellow and dyes to absorb CMYK or PMS – are the secondary colors of visible light. Black white light.” Perhaps you have had the disappointment of (abbreviated K) is used to darken hues created by having the color on your printed piece look the other three colors. somewhat different than it did on your computer monitor. There is a scientific reason for this – the Unlike the phosphors in television screens and RGB phosphors are capable of producing many computer monitors that combine or add to more colors than the process printing inks. And produce white light, process printing inks use the process printing inks, when combined, cannot pigments and dyes to absorb white light. Each always match exactly the single hue of a PMS spot ink color absorbs or subtracts a different portion color. of white light. And because printing inks are transparent, the white light passes through the To put it more simply – there is not a perfect ink (which subtracts a portion of the white light) overlap in the range of colors that are both visible and is reflected off the paper base. The paper to the human eye, reproducible with RGB additive reflecting back unabsorbed light is what creates color, and reproducible with CMYK subtractive color to the observer. It also explains why the color. Whereas the human eye can see billions of same ink color looks different depending on the colors, RGB can reproduce 16 million, and CMYK color of the paper base. printing 5-6 thousand colors. So some colors will “... disappointment convert from RGB to CMYK fairly well (because Color printing, color photography, and paintings of having the color the color is in the CMYK color gamut) and others all use the subtractive process to produce color. on your printed will convert poorly (when the RGB is outside the Cyan ink absorbs red light and reflects green CMYK color gamut). piece look somewhat and blue light. Magenta ink absorbs green different...” light and reflects red and blue light. Yellow ink To illustrate the color gamut incompatibilities, absorbs blue light and reflects red and green try this exercise. Using PageMaker, Quark XPress, light. When combined in equal amounts, InDesign, or PhotoShop, convert RGB blue to pure subtractive colors (C, M, Y) produce CMYK. Watch what happens to the color. Does the appearance of black. Note, however, that the it turn to purple? Now reduce the percentage black actually appears more like a muddy brown. of magenta by 50% and watch it turn back to For this reason, black is used as a fourth ink in blue. This is a dramatic example of how additive process color printing. and subtractive color spaces are not perfectly overlapped. PMS: the colors of one-, two-, and three- color printing Color us helpful PMS stands for Pantone Matching System ™, If you find all this very confusing, please turn to a system used by printers around the world to us for assistance. We will do our best to guide you select, specify, match, and control ink colors. The through the steps needed to make sure the color Pantone Matching System ™ formula guide is a you select is the right one for the job. Call us at book of printing ink formulas and samples on 513-248-2121, and we’ll help clear up the mystery. coated, uncoated, and matte coated stock in a fan format. The PMS book is what we use when helping you select color for your project. Creating a Multi-color Illusion As a general guideline, we recommend incorporating color into almost any printing IIIDEA project. Use of color improves reader comprehension, calls attention to important CORNER information, and improves the overall appearance of your document. “The color draws A common way to use PMS color is to combine the reader’s eye it with black ink as an accent. The color draws and emphasizes the the reader’s eye and emphasizes the information as a lighter shade of PMS color. For some PMS information printed printed in color. Or, if used for headlines colors, the tint may appear to be a different in color.” or subheads in text, the color enhances the color altogether (a 20% screen of burgundy, for document’s organizational structure by creating example, may appear as pink). To add color to a easily discerned text segments. newsletter when the budget is limited, combine a PMS color with black ink on the pages that print To create the illusion of more than one color together on one side of the press sheet. For a four- when using a single PMS color, create a tint or page newsletter, a typical use would be color on screen – a block of small dots – behind a section pages one and four. of text. To the reader, the screen will appear creates more than 1000 colors based What is on combinations of Q. the base in a process & similar to the way Qquestions andA answers paint stores mix a PMS color? paint. Each color is numbered for easy “... the appearance reference and a color of the ink color is PMS is an acronym for swatch and ink formula is printed in PMS guides affected by the paper Pantone Matching System™, – the fan format books we use to help you select an industry standard for colors for your printing projects. it is printed on...” A.identifying and matching colors. The Pantone Matching System ™ was created by Lawrence Because the appearance of the ink color is affected Herbert in 1963 to solve problems associated with by the paper it is printed on, we have several PMS producing accurate color matches in printing and guides for our customer service representatives graphic arts. and press operators to use. In addition, we replace our books approximately once a year to ensure The Pantone Matching System begins with a that color swatches have not changed due to base of 14 colors (two yellows, orange, four fading or exposure to light. reds, purple, four blues, green, and black), then May 2006 PRSRT STD PRSRT US Postage PAID Permit #271 Milford, OH Color Tricks & Tips Combining Colors in a Document A color wheel is a useful tool to help determine how to combine colors in a document.