CMYK N RGB

For those of you who are brand spankin' new to graphic design, I am not speaking in some strange language (nor LOL speak).

CYMK -- Or Cyan, Yellow, Magenta and Key (black).

and

RGB -- Red, Green, Blue

Okay, they're colors. Ah, grasshopper, but so much more! Each are actually a "colorspace" and that makes a WORLD of difference!

Let's begin with a quick and painless explanation on each -- how they work and why it matters.

When you are working with a computer and monitor, you get a side vast range of colors (over 16 million on most computer monitors!). WOW! With a monitor and RGB, the colors are viewed on a lighted screen and the colors combine with one another to make each of the various tones, shades, etc. Ironically, when the three primary colors (Red, green, blue) are added together, you get white. Screwy, I know, but you don't need to know the hows or whys, I promise.

On the other hand, when your beautiful design is printed (from a print on demand service, such as Cafepress, onto a product, such as a t-shirt) they use CMYK.

When all these three "primary" colors are added together, they make a dark, muddy brown (EW). So, black is added to add some tones and shades. CMYK colors deal with how the colors are reflected back to you. For instance, have you ever been informed (usually by a child in elementary school) that grass is not actually green, but every color OTHER than green is absorbed so it seems green. That's a little bit more what CMYK is like. What isn't absorbed, is what you see.

It is WAY more complicated, but I don't need to confuse you to teach you how to use the right system.

So, back to printing graphic designs with print on demand services.

As I mentioned earlier, PODs use CMYK, not RGB. And most graphic design programs use RGB. What's a WAHM to do???

All is not lost. First, check if your program offers CMYK color space. Some do. GIMP (My favorite!) does not. UGH!

Yeah, let me tell you a short painful story (okay, well it was painful for me!) --

When I first launched into the POD business, I just jumped in both feet. I read and researched, but I had read and researched so much, it was leaking out of my ears! Somehow, in all this, I missed the part about using CMYK colorspace. UH-OH! So, I had to go back and REDO all of my first designs. How many? LOTS! DOZENS! And each graphic was in certain sizes for various products. Oh, and did I mention I had already UPLOADED these graphics and added them to designs?

It was a painful lesson, one I will never forget and one I don't want you to make.

BUT all is not lost! I promise. Here I am using my fave GIMP and still making designs that sell, designs that ARE in CMYK colorspace.

So, what do you do if your program doesn't offer CMYK? There are a few websites that offer "conversions" -- however, I have found that if you START at CMYK, it's a WHOLE lot easier!

This site offers an actual color picker in CMYK. Yes, I am re-directing you to another site. WHY? Because you need to bookmark this site so you can come back to it. Then have it open whenever you do a design. When you want a color, use your color picker from your graphics program to choose a color from this website. Then, all of your designs are already in CMYK.

YEAH! So, easy to do!

Oh, and next time, we'll talk about saving your file as RGB... WHAT? You just said use CMYK. Yeah, I know, but you have to in turn SAVE it in RGB. It's okay, we'll do that next time. Go here and bookmark your new tool and then visit our sponsors. 'Kay?

Till next time, go buy some witty tees!