Pantone vs CMYK vs RGB: why your logo color shifts in print

Three ways to describe a color

RGB is red, green and blue light. Screens make color by adding light, and they can show very bright, saturated colors. Every photo from a phone and every web graphic starts life in RGB.

CMYK is cyan, magenta, yellow and black ink. A press builds most colors by printing tiny dots of those four inks on top of each other. This is called process color, and it is how full-color brochures, postcards and photos are printed.

Pantone, often called PMS, is a system of numbered, premixed spot inks. Pantone 286 C is one specific blue, mixed to a formula and printed as a single solid ink. On an offset press, a spot color goes on from its own plate, so it looks the same from job to job.

Why the logo changes between screen and paper

A screen emits light. Paper reflects it. Ink on paper simply cannot reach some of the colors a monitor can show, especially bright greens, vivid oranges, electric blues and purples. When an RGB file is printed in CMYK, those out-of-range colors get pulled to the nearest color the inks can make, and they come out duller or slightly shifted.

Your monitor is also not calibrated to the press. Two screens in the same office show the same file differently. So the color you approved on your laptop was never a promise of what the sheet would look like.

The paper changes the color too

Pantone publishes its colors in coated (C) and uncoated (U) versions for a reason. The same ink looks brighter and crisper on coated paper and softer and darker on uncoated paper, because uncoated fibers soak the ink in. If your letterhead is uncoated and your brochure is gloss, the same PMS number will not look identical on both. Approve the color on the stock you are printing.

Spot color on offset, simulated color on digital

Offset presses can run a true Pantone ink. That is the surest way to hit a brand color exactly, and it is why companies with strict brand standards print letterhead, envelopes and business cards with spot colors.

Digital presses print from toner or dry ink in CMYK and simulate Pantone colors. Most simulations land close. A few colors, the bright oranges and some blues and greens among them, can only be approximated. If your logo is one of those, either budget for offset with a spot ink or accept a close match and approve it on a proof.

How to keep your brand color from drifting

• Know your official colors: the Pantone number, plus a CMYK build and an RGB or hex value for screens. A brand guide that lists all three saves arguments later.
• Name spot colors in your file exactly as Pantone names them, so the press can map them. 'Pantone 286 C' is clear. 'Blue 2' is not.
• Do not send a logo copied from a website. It is RGB and often low resolution. Ask whoever designed it for the vector original.
• Say up front when a color must match an earlier job, and send a printed sample of what you liked.
• Ask for a hard proof on the real stock when color is critical. A PDF proof checks content, not color.
• Keep the same paper finish across matching pieces when you can.

Should you convert files to CMYK yourself

For photos and full-color work, sending a CMYK PDF means you see the shift on your own screen before it surprises you on paper. If you are not sure how to convert, send the file as is and tell us. Our preflight will flag RGB images, and we can handle the conversion and show you a proof. What causes trouble is a file where the logo is RGB in one place, CMYK in another and a spot color in a third, all meant to be the same blue.