CMYK vs. RGB

CMYK stands for Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, Key (Black)

RGB stands for Red, Green, Blue

CMYK is the standard color mode for sending documents – be it magazines, newspapers, flyers, brochures, annual reports and so on to the printers. It stands for Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Key (or black – key because in four-color printing, cyan, magenta, and yellow printing plates are carefully keyed, or aligned, with the key of the black key plate). When you send a job to the press, cyan, magenta, yellow and black plates are made (on a traditional press, anyhow) and then aligned to print on paper. You can always add Pantone, or fifth colors, which are created as separate plates.

Because CMYK has a more limited color gamut than RGB, which is essentially what the eye sees and how screens output, you can experience a loss of color when converting from RGB to CMYK.