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RGB vs. CMYK: The Difference Between Screen and Print Color

The color you see on a computer screen and the color that comes out of a printer can look noticeably different. That is because RGB and CMYK use two fundamentally different systems to produce color.

RGB is additive color, built from light

RGB creates color by combining red, green, and blue light, and it is the system used by devices that emit light, like TVs, computer monitors, and smartphone screens.

Adding more RGB light makes things brighter, and adding it all makes white

The more you combine the three primary colors of light, the brighter the result gets, and combining red, green, and blue light at full intensity produces white. This is called additive color mixing.

CMYK is subtractive color, built from ink

CMYK creates color by combining four inks -- cyan, magenta, yellow, and key (black) -- and it is the system used by printers and printed materials.

Mixing ink makes things darker, and why black gets its own ink

In theory, mixing all three primary ink colors (cyan, magenta, and yellow) should produce black, but in practice it only produces a muddy, dark brown. That is why a separate black (K) ink is included, to produce a true, crisp black.

Why screen color and printed color do not quite match

Screens produce color using light (RGB) and printed materials produce color using ink (CMYK), and the two systems simply cover different ranges of producible color, known as their gamut, which is why faithfully reproducing exactly what you see on screen onto paper is genuinely difficult.

Choose the right mode for the job

Files meant to be viewed on a screen -- for a website or a video -- should generally be created in RGB, while files meant to be printed -- a flyer, a business card -- should be created or converted to CMYK. Some print shops will produce unexpected color shifts if you hand them an RGB file, so it is worth checking in advance.

Additive and subtractive color start from opposite premises

RGB builds color by adding light on top of total darkness -- that is additive mixing. CMYK builds color by layering light-absorbing ink onto a white sheet of paper -- that is subtractive mixing. Even though both systems are described using the phrase three primary colors, they work in fundamentally opposite directions.

The two systems cannot reproduce the exact same range of color

Some of the vivid colors RGB can display simply cannot be matched at the same intensity using CMYK ink. That is why a color that looks vibrant on screen can come out looking slightly muted once it is actually printed.

Frequently Asked Questions

Do home printers use the same CMYK setup?

Most home inkjet printers work on essentially the same CMYK principle, though some models add extra ink cartridges beyond the standard four to improve color accuracy.

Why is black labeled K instead of B?

Because B would be easily confused with Blue, black is instead labeled with the letter from Key plate, a printing term -- this is the commonly cited explanation for the K.