Michelle Cyr

You care because it will save you money!

If you dabble in your own photography, you have probably heard of RGB. That’s the color space that your images come into your photo editor. CMYK at first glance may not be familiar but if you have a color printer at home, you know how outrageously priced all of those cartridges are to make that printer work. Those are CMYK cartridges and I will explain that acronym later. Most likely, the only PMS you have heard of is from those awkward TV commercials selling a pain reliever of some sort. This article will remove some of the mystery.

RGB – Red, Green, Blue.

This is the color model used for displaying images in electronic systems such as monitors, TVs and projectors. This color model REQUIRES the presence of light. That last statement is the key ingredient and I will reiterate. It requires the presence of light. Paper does not have light.

CMYK – Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Black

Ok, I know your saying to yourself; “The word Black does NOT start with a ‘K’!” Why does “K” stand for Black in this color model? Well, most will tell you that blue was represented with “B” and so they used blacK, the last letter of the word. However, this is untrue. “K” stands for key. The other other colors, CMY, must be keyed or aligned with Black in a very precise way.

PMS – Pantone Matching System

Sorry to disappoint you but I will NOT be talking about water retention solutions in this paragraph. Pantone is the company that came up with the system that the printing industry (and subsequently other industries as well) use as a standard color system. Designers, Printers, Advertisers, and manufacturers can all refer to this one standard book (published annually) that standardizes colors.

So Michelle, why do I care about this at all?

Well, good question. Have you ever created anything that you were going to send out somewhere (other than your home/office printer) to be mass produced? You most likely have. Did you pay attention to HOW you created that file, be it created in Adobe InDesign, Quark or Microsoft Word or Microsoft Publisher or even just an Adobe Acrobat PDF file? If you didn’t, you may have spent MORE money to print your job than if you had paid attention it that detail. Yes, sadly, this little detail can cost you money if not done correctly.

Rule of thumb, printers want your files submitted in CMYK. There are some exceptions to this but your commercial printer NEVER wants your files in RGB format at all. Period. The files will have to be converted to CMYK no matter what. Commercial printers can not print RGB files and they will charge you the time that it takes to make this change for you. Even your home printer automatically converts RGB files to CMYK. Strangely, the more sophisticated equipment that your print vendor has isn’t always an automatic process.

How you change from one color model to another is a process that varies from one program to another. Some programs (like many Microsoft Office products) don’t allow you to change the color space at all. In those situations, it is most appropriate to provide your vendor with a PDF file where it is converted to CMYK. It’s always best to check with your print vendor to find out exactly how they want the files. It is my STRONG advice, that you do this BEFORE you design your piece. This can save you countless hours of redoing work, again, saving you time and money.

We would be happy to take a look at your file and provide you with the information you need for most efficient printing. Click here.

Happy designing!