Understanding the difference between RGB and CYMK.

1. Telling the Difference between RGB and CMYK in Color Mixing
Why is there a distinction between RGB and CMYK in
printing? If you print, or are learning to print, on the web,
you’ve likely had the lesson pounded into your head with a
hammer that you need to make sure that your colors are
set to RGB—red, green and blue.
If you don’t do that, all your colors will skew and you have
no idea why. If you print on paper then you’ve heard that
the reverse is true.
You are to only work in CMYK. Should you step off the
beaten path, you’ll find your print jobs looking nothing like
what you designed on your screen.
If you want to keep your Salt Lake City printing job, then don’t create something on your computer in
RGB. Keep it in CMYK—Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, Key (Black).
These rules are both correct and should be followed strictly. Although it may seem illogical, there are
perfectly good reasons to choose the right color scheme to your printing mediums in Salt Lake City.
RGB
RGB is an additive color mixture for light mediums.
What this means is that for any medium in which we
are emitting light onto a display—i.e. TV, computer
screen, cell phone, etc.—the red, green and blue will be
mixed together.
These are the basic colors of the spectrum. You cannot
subtract anything from these light mixtures; you can
only remove light, which creates the color black.
On the other side of the spectrum, white is the
combination of every color in the spectrum. Should you combine red, green and blue in this model, you
will create the color white.
The color changes because the light is becoming more complex. As you combine only one or two of
these three colors, they will create more colors to choose from.

2. Interestingly enough, when you combine blue with green, you make cyan; blue and red create magenta,
and green and red make yellow. Combinations of these three colors form the first three colors of
physical print media.
Physical Work Media
CMYK works as our physical print media. Unlike light, when you print colors together, they away from
the colors complexity.
Instead of adding together to add brilliance, they
degenerate into lower color forms that are darker
and colder. This is why CMYK is called a subtractive
color.
Cyan, magenta and yellow are the most complicated
basic three colors. In light, they are just one step
away from white.
When you combine them, they can form nearly any color by slowly deconstructing in controlled ways.
Combining all three of these colors does not make black however.
Black was added to the mix because no matter how much you mix cyan, magenta and yellow, they just
simply won’t create a true black. You will make a few darker, dirty browns that can be useful.
That’s not always what you’re looking for though. Without proper black tones, your shapes and pictures
will lack a sharp element.
For example, pictures of butterflies look dull and blurry without adding black into the picture. Next time
you need to do printing in Salt Lake City, be sure to consider carefully what medium your design will be
displayed on, and adjust accordingly.
Photo Credit: Rafa from Brazil, Jan T. Scott, Stephen Poff