What is RGB and CMYK Colour Model used for?
RGB and CMYK colour models are used everywhere in day-to-day activities such as looking at posters or even watching a video on your phone. These colour models are the foundation of graphic designing and commercial printing. But what do they mean? Does it matter which ones you use for printing and designing? In this blog, we will be going through the differences and how they can be used.
What is the RGB colour model?
The RGB colour model stands for Red, Green and Blue. The RGB colour model is used to create any colour imaginable by using red, green or blue as additive colours. This means that by varying the quantities of RGB you can create different colours.
For example, if you wanted to create a light blue then you would add green and blue together or if you wanted to make purple, you would add red and blue together. Overall, this seems like it is relatively easy, however, it is more complicated than it seems. Modern-day printers know exactly what amounts of red, green or blue are required to make each colour as the amounts of colour required vary to make a specific colour. This also applies to computer screens, mobile devices and television screens.
What is the CMYK colour model?
The CMYK colour model stands for Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Black. When CMYK was created ‘K’ was referred to as a key. Key was another name for the colour black.
Unlike RGB, CMYK is a subtractive colour which means, the more CMYK added to one another the darker the spectrum will be resulting in achieving darker colours and also black. Whereas, adding more RGB together will result in achieving white.
For example, if you add cyan and yellow together (or more precisely subtract yellow from cyan) you will end up achieving a green colour. If you were to subtract magenta from cyan then you would achieve a blue colour. CMYK is not used often as home printers tend to use RGB. However, CMYK is used at professional printing companies meaning, if you are looking for something to get printed off professionally make sure you are aware of whether they are using RGB or CMYK.
When are RGB and CMYK used?
If you are designing digital mediums you will mostly be using RGB. On the other hand, when printing you can use either RGB or CMYK.
Most of the time when creating a graphic design using RGB, you convert the RGB colour mode file to CMYK. This is to allow you to achieve the full-colour spectrum of RGB and give you more freedom when it comes to designing with colour. However, there are times when creating a graphic design that you should only use CMYK instead of the RGB colour model. This is when you are working with designs in which the colour is majoritively ‘grey’. This is because grey is one of the hardest colours to properly control. When printing a design which is predominantly grey using RGB colour mode it will come out slightly pink. However, using CMYK the colour black is present, making it easier to control. Ensuring that the grey is printed correctly.
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