10/15/2025
🎨 Word of the Week: CMYK
Have you ever designed something on your screen — the colors look perfect — but when it prints, it looks dull, darker, or just… off? 😬
That’s not your printer acting up — it’s color space conversion at work.
💻 On screen, colors are displayed in RGB (Red, Green, Blue) — the same color system used by your phone, monitor, and TV. RGB uses light to create color, which is why images glow with brightness and vibrancy.
🖨️ But printers don’t use light — they use ink. When that digital file comes to us, it’s converted to CMYK (Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, and Key/Black) — the standard for all printing. CMYK blends pigments instead of light, meaning certain bright RGB colors simply can’t be reproduced exactly on paper.
👉 Here’s the takeaway:
If you design in RGB, what you see on your screen won’t always match what’s printed. Designing in CMYK from the start helps ensure your colors stay true from screen to sheet.
At JSU Printing Services, we handle this color conversion daily — so if you ever notice your print looks different from your screen, now you know why!