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| What is color? RGB? CMYK? Pantone what? | ||||||
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Color is the byproduct of the spectrum of light, as it is reflected or absorbed, as received by the human eye and processed by the human brain. It's also a great design element! We perceive color just as we perceive taste. When we eat, our taste buds sense four attributes: sweet, salty, sour and bitter. Similarly, when we look at a scene, our visual nerves register color in terms of the attributes of color: the amount of green-or-red; the amount of blue-or-yellow; and the brightness. Understand better what RGB, CMYK and Pantone really are mean. |
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| RGB - CMYK | ||||||
| RGB: RGB, or red, green and blue, are the additive primaries that are the basic elements of white light. By mixing amounts of RGB, other colors are made. Because they are spectrally pure primaries, RGB provides a very wide range of colors. The downside of the RGB color space is that most of the colors in this gamut cannot be displayed on standard computer monitors and cannot be printed.
sRGB: The sRGB, or “standard” RGB, color space was developed by Microsoft and Hewlett-Packard as a device-independent color space that is compatible with most computer monitors and other hardware. Its features include a D65 (6500 K) white point, a monitor gamma of 2.2 and various other standards for viewing. Its intent is to provide uniform viewing conditions across various monitors resulting in consistent visual results. CMYK: CMYK (the color space enclosed by the magenta line in the diagram at the right) is a subtractive color model used in color printing. This color model is based on mixing pigments of C=Cyan, M=Magenta, Y=Yellow and K=Key (black) to mix other colors. CMYK is in some respects the opposite of RGB color space, as it is based on using colored ink to progressively obscure an already white background. The cyan, magenta and yellow colors may be thought of as alternative primary colors to red, green and blue. In theory, equal quantities of CMY should produce black, but the use of the fourth “color” black may be more reliable. |
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| The Pantone Matching System | ||||||
| In contrast to the commonly recognized color spaces, the PANTONE MATCHING SYSTEM is a color communication system, with each color referred to as a PANTONE Spot Color (shown as black dots on the diagram above). The PANTONE MATCHING SYSTEM is not considered a color space but a color system. Although one could connect the outermost dots in the diagram, the result is not a gamut since there are a finite number of colors that are included in the PANTONE MATCHING SYSTEM.
The colors in the PANTONE MATCHING SYSTEM have been selected to encompass as much of the visual color space as our ink set allows. The chromaticity diagram shows that there are PANTONE Spot Colors spanning much of the CMYK and sRGB color spaces. However, when a CMYK or sRGB representation is not accurate enough, the use of spot colors ensures the perfect color every time. The high level of quality control in creating Pantone’s publications means that they are a reliable source for color communication. Ideally, the PANTONE MATCHING SYSTEM is used in all stages of the design and production of printed materials ensuring that the final output will meet your client’s expectations. |
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| The Center-line Concept | ||||||
| The FORMULA GUIDE is printed with seven colors per page and uses a “centerline” concept. The center-line color (usually, but not always, the color in the middle of the page) is a mixture of one or more of the 14 PANTONE Basic Colors. Lighter colors are printed using the same ratio of PANTONE Basic Colors as the center-line color plus increasing amounts of PANTONE Transparent White. Darker colors are printed using the same ratio of PANTONE Basic Colors as the center-line color plus increasing amounts of PANTONE Black.
Using page 11 C from the PANTONE FORMULA GUIDE/solid coated guide as an example illustrates how the center-line concept works. PANTONE 165 C is the center-line, and is a mixture of 50% PANTONE Yellow and 50% PANTONE Warm Red. PANTONE 164 C, PANTONE 163 C and PANTONE 162 C get progressively lighter by adding increasing amounts of PANTONE Transparent White. PANTONE 166 C, PANTONE 167 C and PANTONE 168 C get progressively darker by adding increasing amounts of PANTONE Black. Most PANTONE Colors, such as PANTONE 165 C, have the center-line color in the middle of the page. However, as colors were added, exceptions occurred. For example, on page 26.5 C, the PANTONE Basic Color Violet is the center-line color but occupies position 5, just below the center of the page. The important thing to remember is the concept of adding PANTONE Transparent White or PANTONE Black to change the appearance of a center-line color, wherever the center-line color appears on the page. |
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| © 1998 - 2009 MelloDesign. All rights reserved. | ||||||
