One of the most common reasons for artwork being rejected is because it (or components thereof) are set up in RGB.
Experienced graphic designers may wish to stop reading here – this will be covering old ground for you (however you’re all guilty of this crime on the odd occasion!). The rest of you – listen up! First, lets get the terms out of the way:
- RGB – Red, Green Blue
- CMYK – Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, Black (we use ‘K’ instead of ‘B’ so it doesn’t get confused with blue)
- Spot Colours – special colours not made up from the CMYK process. Pantones are spot colours.
In brief, RGB are the colours of light used in your monitor screen. You might remember those massive old school projectors used to have 3 lights, in (you guessed it) red, green and blue. CMYK are the colours of ink used in printing. It’s for that reason that print artwork should be supplied in CMYK, never RGB.
Converting RGB to CMYK should be done with care – the results can be surprisingly different so expect to do some tweaking.
Pantone colours are a slightly different kettle of fish. They are pre made colours used instead of CMYK. Company logos are often designed in Pantones, but this isn’t always practical when it comes to printing. In most cases, you are best to convert Pantones to CMYK. As above, this should be done with care as the CMYK equivalent can be quite different to the original Pantone. There are occasions where printing in Pantones is more cost effective, for example on our presentation folders or company reports which have all black text pages.
If exact colour matching is of particular importance for your print job, then please do get in touch to discuss the options available. There’s always a solution!
If you’re unsure about whether your artwork has converted to CMYK, or have any other design queries, then give us a call and we’ll be happy to help – 0800 412 5333.