Design Production: Colour Systems

CMYK, RGB or PMS colour explained

These are the three predominant colour systems that the (print) world revolves around.

PMS stands for Pantone Matching System.

This system is the traditional method of printing whereby there are set ink colours – called Pantones – not unlike tins of house paint.

These colours can be mixed and matched to create new colours, but the basic principal is that only one colour can be printed at a time, then it must dry before the next colour is applied.

The benefit of this system (even though it is becoming more costly to produce) is that your colours are guaranteed not to change – ideal for expanding corporate business images that want to maintain a consistent look throughout their divisions.

You can choose your colours from the ‘Pantone Swatch Book’, a book that contains up to 1000 swatches of different ink colours, which all printers around the world adhere to.

RGB stands for Red, Green and Blue.
This system is predominately used for viewing images. This is what your television is made up of (stand really close to your screen and you’ll see these three colours flickering around).

Computer programmes such as the Microsoft Suite: Word, Excel, Powerpoint and older versions of Publisher all use this colour system. This is ideal for creating electronic presentations such as websites, laptop presentations and other media that needs to be viewed by email, but when it comes to printing things designed in these programs, this colour system can cause some real headaches.

Ever noticed how you have created something in these programs then gone to print it on your home printer or at the print shop and the colours have changed, darkened or become washed out?

That’s because most home printers and all print shops and the print industry work in a colour system called CMYK.

CMYK stands for Cyan, Magenta Yellow and Black.
This process is known as four colour process where these colours are mixed together to produce and almost infinite amount of colours. You can have almost any solid, blend or tint of colours under the sun!

Most large printing companies and all digital printers use this method of printing for output of files and production of your products. All magazines and other printed material like this are produced this way.

It is fast becoming the primary source of printing and high end full colour presses have certainly taken over from traditional pantone printing on the economical scale with digital and home lasers not too far behind.

In a few years time it is expected that this method of printing will have full control over the industry with traditional pantone methods being used only for special colours like metallic and fluoro’s.

So next time you’re thinking of designing something, maybe it’s time to look into the future and ask yourself these three questions:
1) What will I be using it for?
2) Will other people be able to use it?
3) Will this method always be within my budget?

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