What's the Difference?

I'm sure you've heard the terms, CMYK, RGB, and Pantone Matching System (PMS), but what does it all mean? While these were terms of designers and print shops in the past, the accessibility of the internet, websites, DIY programs, and personal printers have made these terms known to anyone interested.

Understanding the different color schemes will help you choose the right colors to keep your brand on point across all avenues of your marketing.

With so many different mediums and technologies getting the same color across the board can be challenging. There are times in which they need to be converted to ensure image quality, such CMYK to Pantone or CMYK to PMS and CMYK to RGB.

Luckily, in today’s digital world it means you can use online tools to make the conversion much easier and get the same colors for your projects across all mediums.

RGB Color

The RGB color mode combines the primary colors, red, green and blue in different combinations to create many digitally displayed colors. The colors you see on websites, applications, videos and more on your screens are created using RGB.

CMYK Color

CMYK color mode uses the colors cyan, magenta, yellow and black in different quantities to create all of the colors of an image. This is the color scheme most often used by desktop printers and 4 color process output in many different processes.

Pantone (PMS) Color

Pantone uses a numbering system to identify color quickly and accurately. The numbers allow different manufacturers to reference the number to create a Pantone color that will be consistant across many different industries.

In screen printing we use PMS to mix our custom inks so we can deliver the most consistent outcome time after time.

Feel free to use our handy conversion chart ot you can find one that works for your project by searching the internet.