Certainly, CMYK (Cyan, Magenta, Yellow & Black) and RGB (Red, Green & Blue) are nothing to be afraid of. They are just a color settings. But, if you’re a print buyer, designer, or jack-of-all-trades small business owner, it’s important to know what those color settings mean in relation to your printed piece.

I’m not going to explain the physics behind RGB and CMYK in this space. You can find great resources for that here and here. In a nutshell, the RGB color space incorporates all of the visible spectrum of light and therefore is very large. Millions of colors are available to choose from and display devices such as monitors and televisions use that spectrum. CMYK is a much smaller color gamut offering thousands of colors by comparison and is used for commercial offset lithography. You can think of the RGB color space in terms of a large circle and the CMYK color space as a much smaller circle within it.

Here’s the kicker. All pieces designed in the RGB color space must go through a RGB to CMYK conversion process to be printed on a press. It’s not hard to see that if you choose a color in RGB that does not exist in CMYK, when it comes time to get your file ready for the press, there might be a problem. 

One of the most common problems I see are solid RGB colors like bright blue converted into CMYK and turning purple. The device doing the converting, whether it’s Photoshop, Illustrator or even Publisher, is trying to come up with a solution for a color that doesn’t exist so it comes up with something it thinks is close.

Enough with the problems, how do we solve this thing? Well, one of the best things you can do is have a good consultative relationship with your printer. Have your printer provide you with a CMYK swatch book printed on the paper you’re going to use for your project. Choose colors for your logo or other design elements that fall easily within the CMYK color space. If you need to employ a designer, be sure to ask how much experience he or she has with designing for print compared to the web. Taking the time to educate yourself just a little bit about color will return your investment in peace of mind and great looking print.