RGB vs. CMYK CMYK is the normal color mode for printing color. The RGB color mode is used to display color on your monitor or computer screen. Because the computer screen displays only light, the more light that is added the "whiter" your color becomes. Therefore with equal amounts of RGB color at their highest level, the resulting color would be WHITE or no color at all. The CMYK color mode for print is used by laying down dots of ink on paper. One set of dots for each color: Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Black. The more ink on paper the "darker" the colors become. Equal amounts of CMYK printing inks at their maximum level would result in BLACK or all colors.)