WHAT ARE THE DIFFERENCES BETWEEN RGB AND CMYK?

When talking about digital printing, some confusion arises between RGB and CMYK. Many photo lovers do not know the type of color space produced by their digital cameras hence they get confused when printing images. Usually, they click on print, but, are not content with the image that has been printed since it appears different from what they view on the monitor.

Both CYMK and RGB are color descriptions. 

RGB – THE COLOR MODEL FOR DESIGN

RGB stands for Red, Green and Blue which is the color model used for light emitting devices such as TVs and monitors. RGB is considered to be an additive color process since it adds (or combines) different amounts of red, green and blue to a dark screen to create all other colors. When all of them are mixed equally it produces white. RGB is also the standard used for digital cameras, scanners and projectors which are all elements that contribute to the “design-side” of the process. RGB is commonly used for webpages and electronic mediums.

Since TVs and monitors are dark in their “off” state, this model works better because it provides contrast between the dark screen and the light emitted image. For this reason, most applications use the RGB format to display color.

The main thing to remember is to print out images using RGB in case the software and printer support it. If you want to have more control over the colors of the image, then print using CMYK. This is because you can manipulate the color of the image as you wish. It is common for the limits of the CMYK color print spectrum to be displayed on the monitor.

CMYK – THE COLOR MODEL FOR PRINTING

CMYK stands for Cyan (Blue), Magenta (Red), Yellow and Black. Black is represented by “K”–the last letter of the word–so it doesn’t get mixed up with blue. Since the printing process starts with a light background, such as on a white piece of paper or light-colored t-shirt design, CMYK is considered to be a subtractive color model since each color of ink “subtracts” white from the final image in the print itself. When cyan, magenta and yellow are combined equally it creates a dark gray color–also known as “composite black”–and because of this a fourth layer of black is included within the process to help sharpen the contrast within the print. The combination of these 4 layers creates the full color print. This is why this model is sometimes called “four color process” printing.