Thursday, May 24, 2012

Design Lesson Number 3 - Color Spaces

RGB and CMYK - What's the difference?

A lot, actually. When you send something to a printer, it needs to be designed in CMYK because that's a 4 color process standard. If you design in RGB and send it away, they will convert it to CMYK before they print it. You can get some UGLY and unwanted results.

You can change the mode in Photoshop by going to Image>Mode>CMYK Do this BEFORE you start designing. I am going to give examples below of what the change can do to specific colors.


Above, you see on the left the colors chosen in RGB color mode. On the right, you will see those SAME colors in CMYK. Beware the change!! If you always design in CMYK, you will never be disappointed with your results.

Colors that are most heavily affected by the change are: greens, blues, yellows, and oranges. Reds get dulled down as well but not quite as badly as the others unless it's a BRIGHT red.

So, start your design in CMYK and let your imagination carry you from there. If you never EVER intend to print your book, RGB it up :)

That's all for today. Time to write!!

Follow me on twitter! @writejomichaels

Until next time, WRITE ON!!

Jo

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