What is CMYK and why is it important?
In the printer/copier world, where we reside, CMYK has a particularly important meaning to the finished quality of a print.
It’s pertinent to understand what CMYK is in the printing process, especially if you’re making production-level prints whose graphics need to be pristine to ensure their effectiveness.
Our almost 40 years of experience have taught us that not many people know what CMYK is and what role it plays in printing.
Today, we’ll be using our expertise to answer a few of the most pressing questions around CMYK, including what it is, how it differs from another common color model and why it’s important to printers and the printing process.
What Is CMYK?
CMYK refers to the four colors of toner or ink commonly used during the printing process: Cyan, magenta, yellow and key (black).
The CMYK color model is a subtractive color model, which means that colors are added to a white background to remove other colors from the visual field.
To help comprehend how the CMYK model works, think about the process of printing a document. When you start the printing process, the paper is completely blank, but once you click print, the CMYK color model works to create the finished copy that will turn out black if cyan, magenta, yellow and key are all at 100% intensity.
This differs from the additive color model that computers use, called the RGB model. Let’s dive into the RGB model to explain the differences between the two.
What Is RGB?
The RGB color model, which stands for the colors red, green and blue, differs from the CMYK model in a major way.
It is an additive color model, which means that colors are added to a blank canvas to build an image.
It is why the RGB color model is used primarily for the digital space, like websites or digital communications. Basically, anything displaying on a screen like your iPhone, TV or computer monitor is using the RGB color model.
See the graphic below by Instantprint to see a graphical representation of the differences between CMYK and RGB:
How Do You Remember the Difference Between CMYK and RGB?
It can be difficult to decipher the differences between CMYK and RGB, so here are a few simple explanations to harken back to if you get stuck:
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CMYK colors are added to a white background to subtract other colors from the visual field, while RGB colors are added to a blank canvas with the goal of building an image.
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CMYK is used for printed materials, while RGB is used on your phone or computer screens.
Understanding the differences between CMYK and RGB is crucial in printing, especially production or commercial printing.
Printing a file in RGB can lead to a finished product, like a poster or manual, with an inconsistent or inaccurate color scheme than what you intended.
If you’re paying good money to print marketing materials for your business and it doesn’t turn out how you want them, it could be because the CMYK model was not used during the printing process.
This can, in turn, lead to a costly and frustrating problem as you have to reprint the same materials that should have been produced correctly the first time.
It’s important to remember that if you have a problem with the color on your prints not matching what’s on your computer screen, it’s probably because you’re looking at a different color model. Reminder: RGB is what you’re seeing on your computer screen and CMYK is what your printer is using.
Safe to say, the CMYK color model can be a significant element to printers. Let’s expand on that point more in the next section:
Why Is CMYK Important to Printers?
So, we’ve established that CMYK is the ideal color model to use when printing a document, but we haven’t gone into the “Why” behind it.
Put simply, printers use the CMYK color model as an industry standard because it will produce the most consistent-looking prints.
This is because the colors used in the CMYK model are easy to standardize, as opposed to the RGB model, which has more color variations, which can be difficult to create uniformity with the design of prints.
Printers use physical ink during the printing process, and with the CMYK color model, the more colored ink placed on the page, the closer it gets to black---the ideal result.
When Would CMYK Apply to You?
Most traditional workplaces will not need to worry about the CMYK color model and why it’s important to printers.
But if you consistently print marketing materials like brochures, calendars, manuals or pamphlets, then it is essential to understand and use CMYK in the printing process. It’s also important if you’re needing to print a very specific color for your company, like a logo.
We’ve touched on the consequences of using the wrong file format to print: Wasted prints, wasted time, and potentially, wasted money.
But how do you ensure that your prints use the CMYK model and not another color model? If you’re creating a graphic in an application like Photoshop, you can convert the file to CMYK within the app itself by going through the proper settings.
If you use an application to make graphics, and you’re going to print them, make sure the file is converted to CMYK. If you don’t, the printer will have to do so automatically, and as mentioned previously, this can lead to color inconsistencies within the print.
Are You a Fit for a Production Printer?
All of this knowledge about CMYK and color models is crucial to understand, especially if you’re a workgroup that has or may require a production printer in the future.
Production printers are primarily used to carry out mass print jobs or handle the printing of specialty media, like brochures and posters, where you would need to have color consistency-- which CMYK is a big part of.
How do you know if you’re a fit for a production printer? Here are three categories of workgroups that might be a candidate for a production printer:
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Businesses that have a daily need to make specialty prints, like booklets and manuals, at a high print volume, which can be anywhere from 50,000 pages per month to over a million.
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Businesses that require special print finisher options for booklets and other specialty prints.
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Businesses that desire advanced color technology and image quality enhancements for their finished prints.
Production printers are mainly for in-plant print shops or organizations that need to print on specialty media frequently.
There will be numerous options for production printers on the market. For example, Xerox, whose products we sell, has entry-level production printers and advanced production printers.
They have six machines in their PrimeLink family of machines that would be considered entry-level and could serve a more normal office setting. However, machines such as the Xerox Versant Presses or the Xerox Nuvera Presses are advanced and would meet the needs of very specific workgroups.
The Xerox PrimeLink C9070, an entry-level production printer (Photo via Just-Tech):
The Xerox Iridesse Press, an advanced production printer (Photo via Xerox):
There are also plenty of other printer brands that sell production machines for workgroups with varying goals. Vetting out your options is always recommended, especially when it comes to production printers that can run well into the thousand-dollar range.
Want to Find Out More About Production Printers?
CMYK plays a central role in the color printing process, and when you’re a workgroup that constantly deals with color prints, it becomes something that you need to pay attention to for your prints to turn out how you want them.
In the previous section, we detailed production printers and who might be a fit for one. As you now know, CMYK is even more imperative when dealing with production-level prints.
As a company specializing in printers/copiers, we know that education is the key to any buying decision. Because production machines are a major purchase, this point becomes even more imperative.
Read our blog on production multifunction printers to learn more about them and whether investing in one might be right for you.
