What are RGB & CMYK Profiles?

Understanding colour can help us all design striking websites, online adverts and printed material. The key to this is setting up colour profiles depending on the final application of your job, whether its for print or web. You want your marketing materials or branding to be as accurate to the on-screen design as possible. 

When it comes to choosing colours, we must ensure that we start our design using the right profile.

CMYK is a four-colour printing process that uses cyan, magenta, yellow and black ink. It is used when designing media that will be printed. Such as leaflets, brochures, business cards, posters and all other printed products.

RGB is a mixture of Red, Green and Blue. It is the most popular colour profile for digital devices, such as cameras and computer screens. It is used for designing media for web. The RGB colour gamut can reach brighter colours than the CMYK gamut as it has millions of variations (colours) compared to just the thousands of printable variations of CMYK. Most computer screens can display most of the vast, vibrant colours of this gamut.

PMS is the Pantone Matching System used to match specialised colours on printed material. These colours are specially mixed inks or spot colours that can achieve a much brighter range than the CMYK gamut. These include a whole range of metallic inks and florescent colours which are also very popular in modern print. They are only suitable for lithographic printing as they can not be reproduced on digital or standard inkjet printers as this technology can only use the CMYK gamut.

Knowing how colour palettes work is key to any graphic design project.

For more information about colour or any other design questions you may have, please feel free to contact us on

01273 504974. For additional information, please visit the design section on this website.