What is the difference between RGB and CMYK?

RGB and CMYK are scales used to calculate color values. Everyone always learned that red yellow and blue are the primary colors. That’s kinda true. It works well for grade-schoolers with fingerpaints, but there are more colors you can achieve using RGB and CMYK.

Think of red, blue and green (RGB) as the primary colors of light.  This is considered a subtractive scale. With none of the colors, you have black. With all of the colors at full brightness you have white. Your monitor is made of tiny red, blue and green lights that work together to show you an color image. Projectors do the same thing. When you look at the white space in a blank word document, you’re actually looking at all the lights while they are on. On a side note: Screensavers are usually black because they SAVE your screen by showing minimal light. Think of it like turning the lights off when you’re not using them. It’s an energy saver too!

RGB spectrum vs CMYK

When dealing with physical colors such as photographs or printed materials the colors you see are broken down into what we call CMYK.  CMYK stands for Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Key (Black) respectively. It would make complete sense that when you buy toner for your color printer, you buy cartridges in those colors. Think of CMYK as a sophisticated Red Yellow Blue. CMYK is an additive scale. With none of the colors present you have white (a blank piece of paper.) With all of the colors, you have black. All colors are created with different percentages of that ink hitting the paper.

With this information you could conclude that when working with color on a computer you must use the RGB spectrum.  When its time to put color into a physical print you would use the CMYK spectrum.

~ by The Empire on August 2, 2009.

Posted in Education
Tags: audio visual, graphics