Color is probably one of the most misunderstood aspects of printing. RGB, CMYK, Pantone, what does this mean?! It can certainly be frustrating and probably involves an lengthy education to even comprehend it, right? Well, it doesn’t HAVE to be. There are some simple rules and competencies to grasp regarding this matter and when combined with just a little common sense, it will all be a very tangible notion quite soon.

So, let’s assume you know only the basics. Right now, you are likely looking at a monitor or some form of computer screen to read this. Your monitor makes all of the colors you see from 3 basic colors: Red, Green, Blue (RGB). Most printers make their color from at least 4 colors: Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, and Black (CMYK). Why the difference? Simply put, ink has to try a lot harder to reproduce colors by spraying down tons of tiny dots on a surface. It has to convince you that you are seeing thousands of colors by putting dots in different patterns from 4 or so actual colors of ink (Sign Art etc. uses a 6 color process, but thats just getting nit-picky). A computer screen has a light behind it and can make an array of colors with tiny pixels and changing the amount of illumination behind the 3 colors (RGB) which gives it that impressive high definition color you are likely accustomed to. This being said, RGB and CMYK will NEVER be the exact same color. Obviously Red is much easier to make when you have an actual RED to work with instead of fabricating one from a mixture of Magenta and Yellow. This is why a lot of times what you see on your monitor does not print exactly the same from your printer. The colors simply are not the same.

Since we know that our monitor makes colors very differently than our color can print them, how on earth do graphic artists create accurate prints with exact color? The easiest answer is the PANTONE MATCHING SYSTEM (PMS). This color matching system works when a printer is calibrated with a library of color recipes that will take the whiteness of the paper/vinyl and spray patterns into consideration to ensure that the print color will be exact. In order to pick a PMS color, you need a Pantone swatch booklet. Its a lot like a collection of paint swatches you might find in a paint section of a hardware store. NOTE: YOU CANNOT SEE PMS COLORS ON MOST MONITORS. What you actually see on your computer screen is called a SPOT color: its a color that is just a place holder; similar to a color-by-number. It just tells the printer to print the real color in its place but it wont print the color you see on the screen.

Recap: RGB is what you computer screen displays color in, CMYK is how most printers print, and Pantone is a uniformed color matched solution to ensure color accuracy. 

Now you know what RGB, CMYK, and Pantone colors are and the basics of how they work. What happens if you want to assure a color but dont have a Pantone swatch booklet? The simplest solution would be association. By this I mean that major brands, national brands, use Pantones to ensure that when they send their logo or design to a printer, that it is replicated with accuracy. When you see the NBA logo, all of the colors are associated with a Pantone color. McDonalds uses their own shade of Red and Gold. You can often tell your printer that you want a nationally recognized color for your art and they can do it. The only issue you may run into is that not all of these brands divulge their Pantone colors. For example: Tiffany’s jewelers has their own shade of blue that is protected and you just simply can’t get the Pantone color for it. You can get close, but no one can get the EXACT recipe other than the owners.

Why don’t I just give you a CMYK value instead of a Pantone? Each printer is calibrated differently and, furthermore, uses different inks with different gamut values, etc. This is why your desktop printer doesn’t print like ours and why you just can’t seem to print EXACTLY like the brochures and flyers you see. If my printer (or yours for that matter) is different in ANY way, using a CMYK value really doesn’t mean much. You might tell me to print 15% Cyan and 11.2% Yellow to make a color, but if my machine uses a heavier pigmented ink than what you are expecting, it’s going to be a far different color. This is why a Pantone matters. You simply cannot assure a color to be close to your expectation without it.

Will an RGB or CMYK value get a reasonable likeness to my desired color?  Unfortunately there is no way to give certainty with that.

Why don’t printers just use RGB? Wouldn’t that be the solution? While there are some printers that do use this palette, it tends to not even get close to what you might think. Keep in mind, monitors and screens have bright lights behind them and that is very different than a sheet of print material. Even then, since you are dealing with a completely different delivery method of light and saturation levels, etc, yadda yadda, I can assure you the CMYK makes the most sense. The exact opposite applies to monitors. RGB is considered an additive color group and CMYK is considered subtractive. Think of them as polar opposites that get to the same point.

NOTE: Sign Art Etc. uses the following Pantone library – SOLID COATED Process

-Dave – Artist @ Sign Art Etc.