• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
Printing for Less

Printing for Less

Satisfaction Guarantee

At Printing for Less, we've offered high quality online printing services since 1996. Shop business cards, booklets, stickers, and more!

800-930-2423
Get A Quote
  • Products
    • Announcements
    • Banners
    • Booklets
    • Booklet Envelopes
    • Bookmarks
    • Branded Box Printing
    • Brochure Holders
    • Brochures
    • Buck Slips
    • Business Cards
    • Calendar Printing
    • Campaign Printing
    • Carbonless Forms
    • Catalogs
    • CD Covers
    • Club Cards
    • Coil Bound Booklets
    • Custom Printing
    • Digital Printing
    • Door Hangers
    • EDDM Postcards
    • Envelopes
    • File Folders
    • Flyers
    • Folded Business Cards
    • Folders
    • Forms
    • Greeting Cards
    • Hang Tags
    • Holiday Cards
    • Invitations
    • Labels
    • Large Envelopes
    • Large Format
    • Large Posters
    • Letterhead/Envelope
    • Magnets
    • Mailer Printing
    • Mailing Envelopes
    • Mailing Services
    • Memo Pads
    • Menus
    • NCR Forms
    • Newsletters
    • Note Cards
    • Notepads
    • Offering Envelopes
    • Packaging
    • Plastic Cards
    • Pocket Folders
    • Postcards
    • Posters
    • Post-it® Notes
    • Presentation Folders
    • Rack Cards
    • Recieipt Books
    • Remittance Envelopes
    • Sell Sheets
    • Signs
    • Statement Stuffers
    • Stationery
    • Stickers
    • Table Tents
    • Tickets
    • Variable Data Printing
    • Vinyl Banners
    • Yard Signs
  • Industries
    • Advertising & Design
    • Real Estate
    • Medical
    • Food & Beverage
    • Non-Profit
    • University
    • Technology
    • Enterprise
  • Services
    • Reseller Program
    • Fulfillment
    • Digital Printing
    • Mailing Services
    • Custom Solutions
    • Design Services
    • Hybrid Experience Platform
  • Resources
    • Marketing & Design Tips
    • Templates
    • Blog
    • Help & FAQs
    • Printing Terms & Glossary
    • Video Library
  • Get Samples
  • My Login
  • Contact
  • About
    • Why Printing for Less?
    • Our Team
    • Sustainable Practices

Why is my blue, purple? RGB v. CMYK

I remember the first time I encountered the term CMYK. I was just a kid, probably 15 or 16 years old, and I was working on my family’s Mac.

At the time I didn’t know a thing about the printing industry, but I was fooling around with the color settings in MacPaint and saw three options: Grayscale, RGB, and CMYK. I switched between the three to see what would happen (which, of course, was nothing, because the tiny screen was black and white anyway).

But RGB made sense, conceptually: red, green, blue. Nothing scary about that.

But CMYK? CMYK was mysterious and strange, and therefore should be feared at all costs. I switched the color settings to anything but that.

CMYK Makes the Print World Go ‘Round

As it turns out, I had CMYK all wrong. CMYK (which stands for cyan, magenta, yellow, and black) is nothing to be afraid of. It’s just another color system, like RGB.

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 when it comes time to create printed content.

I won’t explain the physics behind RGB and CMYK here, but if you’re interested, find more information here on the three different color systems for printing (including Pantone), the science behind the CMYK color model, and how the RGB color model works.

RGB vs. CMYK

The RGB color space is huge, as it incorporates all of the visible spectrum of light. A range of colors (literally millions) are available to choose from in RGB, and electronic display devices like computer monitors and televisions use that spectrum.

CMYK is a much smaller color gamut offering thousands of colors. It’s the color system used for offset lithography, the main printing process you’ll find being used at commercial printers.

Here are the main differences between RGB and CMYK, as they pertain to printing:

 

RGB vs. CMYK
RGB CMYK
Type of color mixing Additive Subtractive
Number of colors Millions Thousands
Main use Digital display Print materials
Conversion Doesn’t always convert to CMYK Converts easily to RGB

Why Converting RGB to CMYK Can Be Tricky

rgb and cmyk color differnces

 

Think of the RGB color space as a large circle of options, with the CMYK color space taking up a smaller circle within it.

In other words, while you can recreate just about any CMYK color on a screen, it doesn’t go so easily the other way around.

All pieces designed in the RGB color space must go through a RGB to CMYK conversion process to be printed on a press. A little preparation upfront is well worth it later — after all, it’s obvious that if you choose a color in RGB that doesn’t exist in CMYK, there might be a big problem when it comes time to get your file ready for the press.

The CMYK Blue-Purple Conundrum

One of the most common problems I see when converting RGB to CMYK are with blues and purples. Often, strong blues (think neon blue, or navy blue) turn purple when printed as CMYK.

Here’s why: the software or device that’s converting the color, whether it’s Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator or even Microsoft 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.

If this sounds like you, you’ll need to select a CMYK or Pantone color that most closely matches your brand rather than trying to convert from RGB to CMYK.

blue and purple color changes  in cmyk

Fixing RGB to CMYK Issues with a CMYK Color Chart

Enough with the problems, how do we solve this thing?

If you have a digital design that you’re nearly ready to print, most programs allow you to switch to CMYK mode to help insure against unpleasant surprises when your design hits the printing process. You can also use an online RGB to CMYK color chart to switch between the two systems.

This is the DIY method, though, and there are a few pitfalls to it:

  • Paper stock. What matches your brand exactly in CMYK may look completely different on the final type of paper your printer uses for your project.
  • Branded elements designed in RGB. If your logo or brand colors were originally designed in RGB, they may not actually exist in CMYK — requiring a rebrand or a lot of headaches trying to work out how to translate your digital content into print.
  • Inexperienced designers. As a rule of thumb, check with a designer to see if they have print design experience before hiring them for a job. If you pick an inexperienced designer, the quality of your content will suffer.

If you’d rather eliminate the guesswork, the best plan is to have a good consultative relationship with your printer. Your printer can provide you with a CMYK swatch book printed on the paper you’re going to use for your project so you can make sure your colors look superb before you spend a penny on printing.

A little research upfront can provide you a massive return on investment, plus the peace of mind that you’re creating fantastic looking print materials to represent you and your brand. Don’t hesitate to reach out to Printing for Less for advice at [phone number] or [email address] — we’ve been doing this print thing for over two decades (and I’ve come a long way since my days of CMYK terror!)

Printing for Less (Printing for Less) has been an industry leader and provider of high-quality, unique printing services since 1996. Though we are a large company with customers across the globe, we treat our customers with the attention and care you’d expect from a luxury printing boutique. From business cards and banners to letterhead, flyers, and beyond — Printing for Less knows printing like no other. Let’s talk about your project! Our print consultants are available 7am-7pm MT Monday through Friday at (800) 930-7978.

Primary Sidebar

RELATED ARTICLES

Earth Day: Sustainable Forestry Myths Debunked

At Printing for Less, we’ve always considered ourselves close to nature, and by that we aren’t referring to the fact that we could throw a rock out our back door and hit a mountain range. As fans of Earth Day, we thought we’d celebrate by sharing a rather excellent infographic produced by Two Sides on sustainable … Read More >

Measuring Marketing Success for a Small Business

Small businesses depend on marketing just as much as large businesses, maybe even more - even when they’ve become a household name in their local area. How do you track marketing success? How do you get insight from marketing failures? This is a challenge for every business, but it can especially … Read More >

10 Direct Mail Marketing Mistakes to Avoid

Direct mail gets attention, but what do you with that attention? You only have about 3 seconds before your prospect, customer or lead puts the direct mail down so you better make those seconds count. Here are the top 10 mistakes we see people make with their direct mail campaigns every day. Your … Read More >

The Best Printed Marketing Merchandise for Your Company

Good marketing and sales strategies are characterized by a versatile, multi-pronged approach that includes print marketing, digital marketing, and branded merchandise. The question is how to use each element for optimal impact. Let’s look at how printed merchandise can level up your marketing game … Read More >

Saving Images: PDF Format

This is the fifth and last posting about formats for saving images. We started a couple weeks ago with the Photoshop PSD format. Then we continued with TIFF, EPS and JPEG formats. Usually Photoshop images are created to be placed in another application. And, as we have pointed out in the linked … Read More >

The Ultimate Guide to Every Door Direct Mail Marketing

Almost everyone in the entire world has been on the receiving end of an Every Door Direct Mail® (EDDM®) campaign. Even if you have recently changed your address, there will always be that business postcard promptly waiting inside your mailbox, usually marked “Postal Customer”. That is why EDDM … Read More >

Use the Correct PDF Viewer Application

It’s important to use the correct settings to create a PDF file when it’s intended for commercial printing. It’s also critical to select the best PDF viewer application in which to look at your PDF. There are many choices of PDF readers, and not all of them are created equally. Many of them may work … Read More >

Twisted Stitches – It’s a magnet, it’s a t-shirt, it’s a business card…

Twisted Stitches out of Portland, Oregon, created a very cool fridge magnet, that really captures exactly what they do: screen printing and embroidery, of--you guessed it, shirts. This would have worked as a standard square or business card-sized piece, but they got creative, and made a perfect … Read More >

Footer

Printing for Less

info@printingforless.com
100 P F L Way, Livingston, MT 59047

800-924-2041

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • LinkedIn
  • Pinterest
  • Twitter
  • YouTube
  • Home
  • Products
  • Industries
  • Services
  • Get Samples
  • Resources
  • Guides
  • Templates
  • Blog
  • Terms & Conditions
  • Contact
  • About
  • Why Printing for Less?
  • Our Team
  • Careers
  • Login

Copyright © 1998-2023 PrintingforLess.com. All Rights Reserved.

logo
  • 866-501-7488
  • Products
  • Industries
  • Services
  • Resources
  • Get Samples
  • Get a Quote
  • About
  • Contact Us
  • My Login