Printers in Kent:

CMYK, Colour Charting

By Celeste Yates

Not to be confused with CMKY, the perfume, CMYK stands for Cyan, which is a type of blue, Magenta, which is a sort of mix between pink and red, Yellow, and Key, which is black. CMYK is also known as a Process Colour or the Four Colour.

It is the standard color model used in offset printing, or for full colour documents. Another type of model is the RGB. RGB stands for Red, Green, Blue, and works on a completely different setting than CMYK. This is due to the fact that CMYK is a subtractive model, while RGB is an additive one.

Most people are not even aware that these two models exist, or that their computer even thinks about these things. However, in the world of desktop publishing, these two different types of color models are essential knowledge to the know how of a design.

To switch a design/image from one to the another might not cause too much of a change on your screen, but when it comes to the print out, the shades will be hugely different in comparison. CMYK uses half tones to mix the other colours, where as RGB does the standard colour arrangement we learnt as children; ie: mixing red and blue will equal purple.

CMYK is generally used mostly for print outs, as the colour and saturation is better then on the RGB. However the latter is better when it comes to presenations on the computer.

For people that are in the industry or work with computers, knowing the difference or knowing about CMYK is common knowledge. The way people incorporate it into their conversations would make a person who didn’t know, not want to ask as it does seem and is becoming standard knowledge. You might as well ask why is the sky blue (although most people don’t know the answer)

But there is a whole other side to CMYK, which involves light, wavelengths and other dimensions. However, the only people who generally know about this are ones that are involved in the printing industry.

The computer and designer industry has never affected our lives as much as it does today. Knowing such terms as CMYK, RGB and even DPI (Dots Per Inch) has become just as important as knowing the latest news and when lunchtime is.

And if you are as lucky as myself, with your parents giving you the initials, CMY in your name, jokes such as “you are just one colour short of an International colour chart” haunt you for most of your life.

Celeste writes for Ao Copy London, who specialise in copywriting and printing.

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