Marketing agencies are colourful places!
Feb
05
2010
As part of our series on all the different types of image terms, we’ve posted about GIFs, JPEGs, EPS and PNGs. As images can be produced in different formats, so to can colours.
When your marketing agency designs your artwork, software programs will give them the choice to work in either RGB or CMYK mode. RGB mode is mainly used on websites. CMYK mode is the correct colour format for full colour printing.
When your marketing agency designs your artwork, software programs will give them the choice to work in either RGB or CMYK mode. RGB mode is mainly used on websites. CMYK mode is the correct colour format for full colour printing.
RGB stands for Red, Green and Blue, the primary colours of light. Scanners and digital cameras create images using combinations of the three RGB colours. When a scanned image or photo taken with a digital camera is saved, it will usually be in RGB format. RGB mode is used for displaying images in electronics, such as televisions and computers, and especially used on websites and in digital photography. RGB files can’t be used for printing on professional print presses, due to their structure.
But why is there a difference between the files? Professional printers produce your print items using a different set of colours to RGB. This is known as CMYK printing and uses the primary colours of pigment rather than light. CMYK is short for Cyan (blue), Magenta (red), Yellow and Black (K). The inks used in this process are translucent so can be overprinted and combined in a variety of different ways to produce a wide range of colours and a higher quality print that RGB.