What are Colour Models?
Industry News • 30th November 2022

When discussing a new piece of work with a client, we’re often given a vague direction of colour for the project. Something along the lines of; ‘Can we make it red and black?’. Now this is always a helpful start, but selecting a colour is not quite so simple…
Each colour has a significant number of shades to choose from. Let’s look at red as an example, there are currently over 130 standardised shades.
So as you might expect, the first step is to drill down to a more specific shade. Let’s go with a medium dark shade of pink-red, or as we like to call it ‘PHd Design red’…. But it can be difficult for even those collaborators who are very comfortable with the colour spectrum, such as printers to understand exactly which shade we mean when we say a medium dark shade of pink-red. This is where colour models come into play.
What is a Colour Model?
In it’s simplest form, a colour model is a system used to describe a colour, so that it is consistent across all devices and materials. This standardisation of colour, means that you can be confident that everyone involved is working to the exact same shades of colour required for your project.
Believe it or not, there is more than one standardisation model. The 3 most commonly used colour models are: CMYK, RGB and Pantone. On the surface, it may seem counterintuitive to have multiple systems for standardisation. But each model has its own individual strengths and weaknesses.
So let’s look deeper into the most popular models…
CMYK
CMYK is an abbreviation of the main colour components, Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Key. To make this a bit simpler, the colours can be thought of as; blue, red, yellow and black. However, this method is sometimes referred to as ‘four colour’.
Now that we have the basics, let’s move on to ‘halftone’. CMYK printing uses halftone, where tiny dots of each colour component is printed in a pattern that we perceive as a solid block of colour. This makes CMYK a subtractive colour model, which means that when the colours overlap, the light wavelengths are absorbed, so we see the remaining wavelengths that weren’t absorbed. It often helps to think of it being similar to mixing paint to get the right shade. But in design work, instead of mixing paint by hand we use digital tools to assign a value to each of the four colour components to select the desired shade with precision. Interestingly though, if you get close enough (depending on the project you might need a magnifying glass), the image will appear pixelated, as you perceive the individual dots.
However, colour consistency can be an issue with CMYK printing, as the CMYK value may look different depending on variables in production.
Yep, we know it’s complicated…
RGB
Next on our list we have RGB, which stands for Red, Green, and Blue.
RGB is used for electronic and digital colouring, so you will likely have seen it in use on digital cameras, TV, and HTML.
Unlike CMYK, RGB is an additive colour model, which means that instead of layering colour to block light, it instead adds the light wavelengths together in order to produce new colours.
The main drawback of RGB is that it is a device-dependent colour. For instance, if you adjusted the presets on your TV for a ‘warmer’ picture, or adjusted the brightness and contrast on your computer monitor, then those specific colours you had so carefully selected, would look a little different depending on which device you viewed it through.
Pantone
The Pantone Matching System, commonly referred to as ‘Pantone’ has become the standard in colour matching and standardisation.
This system starts with a CMYK code, and then converts this into a ‘spot colour’. This spot colour then prints as a solid colour, rather than the CMYK halftone dot colours. But the Pantone system has a wider range of colours than the CMYK system and can even produce metallic and fluorescent colours.
But, as you might have guessed, this method is still open to ‘misinterpretation’, as colours can look different on different devices, and different again when compared with the final print. This concern was resolved by Pantone as they produced a range of physical swatches in both coated and uncoated formats. This allows designers and clients to not only see the actual colour, but to see how the printed colour would look depending on whether coated or uncoated paper was used for the final print.
When it comes to printing, it’s well known that Pantone will always produce consistent and sharp colours, but there is a downside… Each colour requires its own ink and screen, so can become quite expensive depending on the project.
So, Which Colour Mode is Best?
Most designers prefer to work in Pantone and will then find the closest match in another mode should the project be better suited to that mode.
But generally speaking, CMYK is best for printing at home, where budget is a concern and collateral prints. RGB is best for digital projects. And Pantone is best for colour accuracy, textile or product manufacturing and screen printing.
If you need support on a design or print project, we might be the perfect graphic design agency to help. Get in touch with our team today, by emailing info@phddesign.co.uk or call 01543 473 191.