Should my artwork be CMYK or RGB?

Supply your artwork in CMYK. RGB is how screens make colour, and it has to be converted before it can be printed.

The difference

• RGB (red, green, blue) is light. Screens mix the three to make every colour you see, and they can produce very bright, glowing colours.
• CMYK (cyan, magenta, yellow, black) is ink. A press lays the four inks on paper to build the image. This is also called four-colour or full-colour printing.

Ink on paper cannot reproduce every colour a screen can show. The range of colours each method can produce is called its gamut, and the CMYK gamut is smaller.

What happens to an RGB file

We do not send an RGB file back. We convert it to CMYK and print it. Most colours come through close to how they looked. The ones that move are the brightest: vivid blues, neon greens, bright oranges and hot pinks tend to come out flatter or duller.

If you convert the file yourself, you see the change on screen and can adjust the colours before you order.

Tips

• Set the document to CMYK before you start designing, not at the end.
• For solid black text, use 100% black only (C0 M0 Y0 K100). Text made from all four inks can look soft at small sizes.
• Pantone spot colours cannot be reproduced exactly in four-colour printing. If a brand colour has to be very close, tell us before you order.

If your software only works in RGB

Some tools do not export CMYK. See how to export a print-ready PDF for what to do in Canva, Adobe software and Word. Menus and options vary between versions, so contact us if you get stuck.

Even with a CMYK file, print will not match a screen exactly. See will my print match what I see on screen.