Cifuentes Marketing

CMYK and RGB, what’s the deal? — Dealing with color on a computer for business document publishing

Thu, 1 Jul 2010 11:15:41 -0500

So by now, you’ve learned a little about color. (If not, please go back and read last month’s posting.) Next I’m going to explain exactly what you need to know about color when it comes to publishing business documents from your computer.

First Things First — What’s the difference between RGB and CMYK?
There are two sets of color profiles that you will need to be aware of as you create business documents using your computer — RGB and CYMK. But what do those fancy acronyms mean anyway?

RGB — Simply stands for Red, Green and Blue and is an additive color model in which red, green and blue light are added together in various ways to reproduce a wide spectrum of colors. It is typically used for documents that will be somehow viewed on a computer or some other type of screen. Also, digital cameras and video cameras use this color model.

Each RGB color will have a color code associated with it. Numbers in each section of the code range from 0 to 250. For example: R=178, G=32, B=0.

CMYK — Stands for Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Black (K stands for “key,” as black is the key color in this model) — the traditional ink colors used by professional printing presses. These four colors are mixed to create all of the colors in your business document. Hence CMYK printing is often referred to as 4-color process printing.

Each CMYK color will have a color code associated with it. Numbers in each section of the code range from 0 to 100. For example: C=98, M=23, Y=15, K=14.

However, what you see on your screen may not be necessarily what you get in your final printed document. More on that later.

Making Documents for Online, Email and Other Screen Presentations If you need to produce a document that will be viewed on a screen, such as a website page, a PowerPoint presentation or an email, you will need to use the RGB color model. For best results, there are a few things that you will need to be aware of.

Hex Colors (Web Colors) — Hex colors are colors that are specified using an RGB triplet code in hexadecimal format, referred to as a hex code. Hex codes are most commonly used in specifying color for website pages. The hex code for a color can contain both numbers and/or letters and the code is commonly proceeded by the # symbol. For example: #99 FC 44.

Web Safe Colors — A set of 216 hex code color values that was created to provide display consistency from one screen to another. The goal was to have a set of colors that would display “the same” on all computer monitors. However, this set was developed at a time when many computer displays were only capable of displaying 256 colors. With advancements in monitor technology, web safe colors are no longer a major concern and you should feel free to use almost any RGB color/hex code color you choose.

It should be noted that RGB colors may vary slightly from one screen to another based on individual color calibration and settings, even if you use only web safe colors.

Making Documents That Will Be Printed Professionally If you plan on sending out your business documents to be professional printed on a printing press, you will need to use the CMYK color model. There are a few things you will need to know to do this successfully.

What you see on your computer screen may not always be what you get with CMYK printing. Comparisons of colors between RGB displays (your monitor) and CMYK prints can be difficult, since the color reproduction technologies and properties are so different. Your computer monitor mixes shades of red, green, and blue to create a wide variety of vivid colors. With CMYK printing, your color spectrum is much smaller.

Some colors can never by replicated in print using CMYK and others are notoriously hard to produce, such as some reds and blues. Many RGB colors are “out of gamut” for the CMYK color model. This is why printers and document designers use “spot color” inks.

Spot color inks are inks that are specifically mixed to reproduce those impossible or hard to hit colors. The Pantone Color Matching System is the most widely used to spec spot colors. Each color has a corresponding Pantone or PMS (Pantone Matching System) number. For example PMS 360 or Pantone 360 would be used to designate a specific green ink.

If there is a color that you must reproduce exactly in your printed documents, you will want to specify a Pantone color to your printer. You can match the color yourself by using a Pantone solid color guide or ask your printer to do this for you by providing them with a sample of your desired color.

By adding a spot color to your document, the printer must add an additional “plate” in the printing 4-color printing production process. (Regular 4-color printing requires the use of four plates.) An additional plate is added for each spot color you add to your document. Adding color plates can significantly raise your printing costs, so you should only use spot colors if your absolutely must have a specific color (such as an official corporate color that cannot be closely reproduced using CMYK) and your printing budget allows.

Pantone also offers a Pantone to Process color guide that shows how all of the PMS ink colors look when reproduced in CMYK. You can use this guide to determine how your desired color will look when printed in 4-color process. This can be useful if your printing budget makes specifying a spot color cost prohibitive and will let you know what to expect your document’s chosen colors to look like once they are printed.

A Word About Color and Software
It should be noted that programs such as Microsoft Word and Publisher only use an RGB color model and there is no way to convert your document into CMYK without use of additional software. So if you have created your document using an RGB-based software, your printer will need to convert your document for you before it can be printed. This may cause your printing project to incur additional production costs.

Professional design software, such as Adobe Creative Suite (InDesign, Illustrator and Photoshop) or Quark provide easy ways to create documents in either CMYK or RGB. You can also use Photoshop to convert your images from CMYK to RGB or visa versa. If possible, try to use professional design software when creating documents that will be professionally printed. However, you can make do with other softwares, if you do not have access to a professional program. Design software will be discussed in detail in a future posting.

What if I need to create a document for screen display AND printing?
Have no fear. There is an easy solution to this dilemma. Unless you are sending your document for final production on a professional press, you need not worry about CMYK. Simply build your document using RGB color profiles. Most standard office and home printers can print and even print best using this model. However, some monitors/screens cannot display CMYK color profiles.

NEXT TIME: Resolution — No this is not something you make at the beginning of every new year.

Everything you need to know about color. And no, you didn’t learn this in kindergarten.

Tue, 1 Jun 2010 11:00:04 -0500

Ever since you were old enough to hold a crayon, you’ve been dealing with color. However, now that you’re an adult working as a business professional, you feel ill equipped to deal with it. As a result, you either avoid using color at all or you go off the deep end and make bad color choices in your business documents.

Get ready to go back to your creative roots and take a crash course in everything you need to know about color (that they didn’t teach you in kindergarten) as a business professional. And who knows, after this you may even be able to “talk shop” with your in-house or freelance designer.

First Things First — Color Basics
Below is an image of a standard color wheel.

Basically, all colors are made from the three primary colors: red, blue and yellow.

The action of mixing the three primary colors gives you what are called the secondary colors: purple, green and orange. When you mix red and blue, you get purple. Combining blue and yellow will give you green. Mixing yellow and red produces orange.

When you mix a primary color with a secondary color, you get the tertiary colors: blue-green, yellow-green, yellow-orange, orange-red, red-purple and blue-purple.

When you add white to a color, you create a tint of that color that will appear as a pastel color. When you add black to a color, you create a shade of the color.

Greens and blues are considered to be “cool” colors. No, not cool like you in your sunglasses — cool as in visual temperature. The cool colors are thought to have a soothing or calming effect on the viewer.

Reds and oranges are considered to be “warm” colors. They typically have an energizing effect on the viewer.

Purples are yellows rest somewhere in between the realms of cool and warm and can be considered to be either based on the tint or shade used or the other colors they are used with.

About Color Schemes
Take a look at the color wheel above. Each color has a complimentary color that is located directly across from it. For example red and green are complimentary colors. Using complimentary colors is an example of one of the most basic color schemes.

Another color scheme can be created using split-complimentary colors. This means you are picking one main color and then choosing the two colors that reside directly to left and right of your main color’s complimentary color. For example, if red is your main color, your split complimentary colors would be blue-green and yellow-green.

You can also create a double complimentary color scheme using two sets of complimentary colors, such as red and green, plus blue and orange. However, I would not recommend this for most businesses and their communications. A general rule of thumb would be to pick a main corporate color (this may already be chosen for you by your company’s logo or graphic standards) and then pick one or two other colors that you can use to accent your communications.

A popular choice in creating business color scheme is to combine analogous colors. Analogous colors are three colors that are adjacent to one another on the color wheel. For example, green, blue-green and blue represent an analogous color scheme.

Of course, these are not the only ways you can combine colors together to create a great corporate color scheme. You don’t have to limit yourself to colors you see on the color wheel. There are millions of colors out there that you can play with. Plus, don’t forget about white, black and gray colors. Each can be a great addition to your overall color scheme.

Bored yet? I thought so. But remember, knowing the basics can help you make smart color combination choices that will help you represent your business and ideas in the best possible light.

NEXT TIME: CMYK and RGB, what’s the deal? — Dealing with color on a computer for business document publishing.

We are all creatives. Yes, I’m talking to you!

Sat, 1 May 2010 13:53:48 -0500

Whether you consider yourself to be creative or not, chances are you’re more creative than you give yourself credit as being. Even if you can’t draw, paint or make Photoshop sing, you can still be creative in your day-to-day business life.

Creativity can be defined as having an imaginative ability. We all had imaginations as kids, but somewhere down the line in your formal education it was systematically squeezed out of you. Or was it?

Creativity can also be defined as having ingenuity, originality and resourcefulness. Everyday, you are faced with work challenges in which you must come up with a new or better way of doing things. You may be charged with coming up with a business or marketing strategy that will help your company become more competitive or sell more units. In these seemingly mundane day-to-day business tasks, you are using your creative powers — whether you realize it or not.

In fact, developing a business or marketing strategy can be considered to be THE most creative act you can engage yourself with when you think of creativity in this way. Your creative skills are already there at your disposal. You just need to recognize that they are there. Being creative is in essence finding a way to solve a particular problem. Creative people are problem solvers and so are you as a businessperson.

As a business professional, step one is to begin to see yourself as a creative. But you will evidently hit a roadblock because you may have little or no design sense a.k.a. how to use design elements to effectively communicate in presentations, proposals and marketing pieces.

That’s where step 2 comes in. How do you get enough design skill to make everything you do look its most professional without becoming a designer yourself? In the following postings you find some basic information that you can use to get just enough design sense to help take your efforts to the next level.

This blog will help give you what you need to know about:

• Color
• Typography
• Handling Graphics
• Choosing the Imagery
• Creating Layouts
• Design Software
• Printing
• How to Write a Great Creative Brief
• And General Tips on How to Get Your Creative Juices Flowing

So take a deep breathe, relax and start thinking like a creative!

NEXT TIME: Everything you need to know about color. And no, you didn’t learn this in kindergarten.