What Color is Your Space?
Part 1.

RGB vs. CMYK
Understanding color in graphic arts can be confusing, even to experienced designers, printers, and photographers.

That is, in part, because no two people, computers or output devices “see” exactly the same thing, making color models hard to standardize. For instance, the RGB (Red, Green, Blue) color space accommodates many different models including sRGB, Adobe RGB 1998, and Adobe Wide Gamut RGB, just to name a few. All have their places in representing color on computer screens, cameras, television sets, projectors and photographic prints. But RGB can’t do everything.

That’s why, in the world of commercial printing, CMYK (Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, Black) is king. Known as four-color printing, printers use these color pigments to create printed text, graphics, and photos on almost anything. And although Process Colors are pretty much the same everywhere, every combination of computer, press and substrate can create unpredictable and inconsistent color without a Color Profile.

Next Time:
What is Your Color Space?
Part 2
RGB