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Images and Ink: What Designers Should Know
Printing is more than putting ink on paper — it’s about reproducing images accurately and making colors pop in a way that reflects your brand. To get the best results, it’s essential to understand how images are processed, how inks behave, and how the paper and viewing environment affect the final printed piece. Paying attention to these factors ensures consistent, high-quality results every time.


RGB vs. CMYK
Red, green, and blue (RGB) are the primary colors of light. Cyan, magenta, yellow and black (CMYK) are the primary colors of printing. RGB color is used to display on your computer screen. RGB is called additive color. The more light you add the lighter your color becomes. When equal amounts of the RGB primary colors are at their highest level, the resulting color is white. CMYK color is used for printing. Dots of ink are printed on paper for each color: cyan, magenta, yellow


Color and Ink Tips
Delete extra colors from your document to simplify prepress work Delete all non-used colors. Going through this process will eliminate the possibility of incorrect conversion of “extra” colors to four-color process. Do not use RGB colors in your document. RGB describes computer monitor color and must be converted to reproduce on paper. When using Pantone colors, use consistent color names in your documents Use correct and consistent names within a file and from project to pro
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