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File Types & Color Models · Page 5 of 6

Color models

CMYK and RGB are two ways of representing color, used in totally different places.

RGB: for screens
- Red, green, blue
- Combine to make white
- Additive color: light defines the color
- Seen on screens: lighting, video and computer monitors
- 16.7 million possible colors
- For digital images
- Smaller file sizes
CMYK: for print
- Cyan, magenta, yellow, black (key)
- Combine to make black
- Subtractive color: pigments define the color
- Seen on surfaces such as paper. Mixing the four inks can create nearly any color in four-color “process printing.”
- About 16,000 possible colors
- For printed materials
- Larger file sizes

Process printing

A butterfly photo split into its cyan, magenta, yellow and black layers, the final combined image, and a close-up showing the dot pattern. — CMYK prints in tiny dots. Layered together, they make a full-color image.

A landscape printed in cyan only, then cyan plus magenta, then plus yellow, then plus black, building up to full color. — Process color mixes four standard inks on the press to create a wide range of colors.

Making something for online? Use RGB.

Making something to print? Switch to CMYK for better color accuracy.

© Created by Sara Rosenstock, Marietta College Graphic Design.