RGB, PMS, CMYK, what exactly is the situation?

Plenty of ideas for a beautiful design. Get to work! With Adobe InDesign, Photoshop or perhaps Illustrator. The right settings must be determined beforehand, including the right color setting. But what is the right color setting? Should it be in PMS, CMYK or RGB?

PMS printing

PMS stands for Pantone Matching System. Each color has a unique code, which enables every printer to reproduce the exact same color (if the material is also the same). PMS colors are used especially in house style printing: it is important that the logo of a company is the same on all items. PMS colors can only be used for printed matter that is printed in offset. On digital presses PMS colors can be approached very well.

Color range with PMS colors
In addition to a color range for coated paper, there is also a color range for uncoated paper. This has everything to do with the fact that the same colors appear differently on different types of paper. Rule of thumb: a design with 1 or 2 colors by means of offset printing? Then PMS is a good option. More than 2 colors? Then choose CMYK.

CMYK printing
When we print in full color we do so with CMYK colors: Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and blacK. With these 4 colors almost any color can be achieved. The printing press mixes the different ink colors, whereby the percentage of a certain color determines how the final color will be. For example, a green color is made up of Cyan and Yellow. And red is made up of Magenta and Yellow.

RGB
RGB is not used in printing, but for expressions displayed on monitors such as the screen of your iPad or computer.
The abbreviation RGB stands for the primary colors Red, Green and Blue. Six so-called "hexadecimals" (digits) indicate which color is involved. The first 2 digits determine the red colour, the second 2 digits the green colour and the last 2 digits the blue color.
To make a file that is formatted in RGB colors suitable for printing, it must first be converted to CMYK. The best way is to change the color profile to CMYK in the original InDesign, Photoshop or Illustrator file.

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