Why you should provide CMYK files for print

We’ve seen it dozens of times. Clients who supply RGB artwork often find that the color on their finished piece has shifted. The fact is that all full-color print files should be created and supplied to your printer in CMYK. There are cut-and-dry reasons for this. Lets take a minute and try to unravel why CMYK is king of print. First, lets define the key players when it comes to color:

RGB Color Space
RGB is a color space intended for the screen. Its acronym stands for Red, Green and Blue. All of the colors within the RGB color space are created by some combination of red, green and blue light. RGB is what is known as an ‘additive’ color space. When the colors are added together you get the color white. Likewise, when you remove all of the color, you create black. The RGB color space has a large range of colors that it can create—16 million to be exact. This range is known as ‘gamut.’

CMYK Color Space
Conversely, CMYK color space is intended for print. Its acronym stands for Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Black (denoted as ‘K’ so it is not confused with blue). CMYK is often referred to as four-color-process. It is called a “subtractive” color space, because the removal of all colors results in white, where as the addition of all colors results in black. Although you can produce thousands of colors with CMYK, it has a much smaller range—or gamut—of colors than RGB does.
Now that we have called out the players, we can start to understand why RGB artwork doesn’t translate well to print:

Differences in Gamut
After studying the definitions of RGB and CMYK color spaces, the concept that RGB has a much larger gamut than CMYK is pretty evident. When an RGB file is supplied to a printer, the printer must convert the file to CMYK. There is just no other option. Because of the difference in color ranges (gamut), when the RGB file is converted, it is forced into a smaller range of colors. Through the conversion process, the software analyzes the image and reconfigures the colors into the closest CMYK equivalent. This can leave the new CMYK image looking dull in comparison to the original RGB image.

Differences in Medium
RGB is for screen. CMYK is for print. The two color spaces are created for their own specific purpose and in order to get the best results, they need to be used as they were intended. When colors get duller in RGB to CMYK conversion, its not because CMYK is a inferior color space, but that RGB simply has properties that it cannot replicate. Techno-bright colors can be achieved in RGB because the colors are created from light, whereas the paper CMYK inks are printed on cannot emit light and thus, cannot produce as bright of colors. The fact is that sometimes screen colors are just not reproducible with ink and vice-versa.
Now that you have all this RGB/CMYK knowledge, you probably want to know what to do to make sure you don’t have to deal with RGB to CMYK print conversion surprises. There are a couple tips that should make your print projects turn out as you have envisioned them:

Edit your photos in RGB, but place them in CMYK
If you have to make edits to photos used in your piece, you will want to make the major edits in their native, RGB format and then convert the final image to CMYK. The reason for starting in RGB is because the gamut is greater, you have the ability for much more precise editing. Once your edits are made, convert the file to CMYK and save a copy of the image for placement into your artwork.

Design in CMYK
Always make sure to design in CMYK. If you are working on a design element in Photoshop, make sure to be working in CMYK, or you could get an unpleasant surprise when you go to convert the file to send for printing. This also goes for files created in InDesign and Illustrator. Both of these programs give the option to work with RGB colors or in RGB mode, so make absolutely sure you are working in CMYK by making sure all swatches are created in CMYK (in InDesign) and that your Document Color Mode (in Illustrator) is set to CMYK.

When you have a solid understanding of RGB and CMYK color spaces, it makes it easy to produce the right kind of art for the right medium. Hopefully this little primer on RGB and CMYK usage will serve you well and help you avoid unexpected color conversions in the future.

Marketing in a down economy provides an opportunity to come out on top

Studies show that those who advertise in a recession are more likely to increase sales in the future. In fact, marketing in a recession could be one of the best ways to grow your business long-term. When a recession hits, every business’ knee-jerk reaction is to cut their spending—and they usually hit the marketing budget first. Everyone else is doing it, you should too, right? Wrong. This is the exact reason you should advertise in a recession. There is much less advertising clutter flying around, which makes those who are advertising even more noticeable.

You see, if you advertise throughout a recession while your competitors are not, that gives you a unique opportunity to capitalize on your competitors’ err in judgement. With less advertising competition you can increase awareness of your brand, which can easily convert to market share when a consumer needs your service—whether that may be during the crunch or after it.

The secret to successful marketing is to be top-of-mind when a consumer needs a product or service. In order to be top-of-mind you must make your business known, and be visible and available when your prospect needs you most.

McGraw Hill has done several research studies on recession advertising. Some of their findings are as follows:

• Sales statistics of companies that maintained or increased advertising during the 1974 recession showed a 132% growth, post-recession.
• Following the recession of 1981–82, those who maintained or increased advertising spend throughout the recession achieved higher sales than their competitors in the three years following that recession.
• By the end of the three years following this recession, the sales of those who had continued to maintain their advertising throughout the recession had risen over 256% higher than that of their competitors.
• Another study in 2001 found that recession advertisers’ market share had grown to 2.5 times that of the non-advertisers.

That being said, can you really afford to pause your advertising?

Sure, everyone’s funds are tight in a recession, but for those who choose to maintain or increase their advertising throughout come out ahead post-recession. Plus, if you find your business to be slower than usual, putting some real effort into creating and implementing a well-crafted marketing plan is a valuable way to spend that time.