understanding colors - D&A Design - Branding, Packaging Design, Logo Design, Website Design, Brochure Design, Catalog Design, Graphic Design

about color

A few rules-of-thumb about color:

If the end-product is going to be on-screen (web, phone, digital media, etc.), the colors will consist a combination of red, green, and blue - RGB. All digital cameras shoot pictures in RGB mode. RGB is how light is communicated.

If the end-product is going to be printed, or in some tangible form, it will likely be produced using the the traditional four colors of ink: cyan, magenta, yellow, and black - CMYK.

Because RGB communicates in light, and CMYK communicates in tangibles, it is not possible to match the colors exactly. The two formats will not convert perfectly.

It is important to understand and work with this understanding when working on project that will be applied across multiple media.

RGB example

CMYK example

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