As an important element of packaging design, color has the function similar to language. It’s the most powerful element of visual information transmission, it also has effect of beautifying products. In printing packaging industry, we usually deal with RGB, CMYK, PANTONE, choosing them as color choices of custom printed packaging. We will briefly talk about their application and how they work in printing.
What is Color mode?
Before we move on, we need to know what is color mode. Color mode is a mathematical algorithm for color presenting. In order to meet different purposes such as screen display and printing output, different color forming methods have been developed. Different color modes represent completely different color generation principles. The most commonly used today are CMYK, RGB and PANTONE that we are going to introduce.
CMYK
CMYK color mode applies to colorful printing products, mainly composed of Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, Black color. By mixing and superimposing these four colors to create new colors, so it is also called four-colors printing or full-color printing . When using CMYK in graphic design, each of C, M, Y, K will has a value from 1 to 100. Combining different values of them can generate the color you need. There will be one million colors in total.
CMYK color mode applies to colorful printing products, mainly composed of Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, Black color. By mixing and superimposing these four colors to create new colors, so it is also called four-colors printing or full-color printing . When using CMYK in graphic design, each of C, M, Y, K will has a value from 1 to 100. Combining different values of them can produce the color you need. There will be one million colors in total.
It has the advantages of high color reduction degree. CMYK color mode works based on the principle of light reflection. The color on printings can be seen through the light reflection. Therefore, the color of printing is highly similar to CMYK color.
Another advantage is that most of printing machines use CMYK color mode, so there are no complicated changes between 2 or more different color modes, which causes some of the colors missing. CMYK is a very cost-effective solution for printing as well.
CMYK adopts overlay printing method, the light has go through layers of CMYK inks until it comes to our eyes, so it will a little bit darker than what is shown on screen. And sometimes, the printing effect will be affected due to the accuracy of the equipment, including the degree of paper expansion, environmental humidity, roller pressure, and the difference in the diffusion performance of different color materials on the paper.
RGB
RGB represents the colors of the three color channels, red, green, and blue, and it is also one of the most widely used color modes in design. Most of the visible spectrum in nature can be represented by a mixture of red (R), green (G), and blue (B) in different proportions and intensities. Each monochromatic light can be divided into 0-255 values. It can be composed of more than ten million colors, which is also a color standard for display screens. All colors and pictures that only need to be displayed on objects that emit light such as computers, TVs, and mobile phones are expressed on the basis of RGB mode.
Compare to CMYK color mode, RGB has more then ten million colors. What’s more. Its color is brighter, and has high color saturation. The RGB model is usually used for lighting, video and screen image editing, and also for RGB color printing.
But as the color forming principle of RGB mode and CMYK mode are different, the calculation method is also different, resulting in a big difference in the printing effect. There is a large difference between display effect and printing effect, When converting RGB to CMYK, some colors will be missing, so it is not the best and suitable choice for printing.
The Pantone Matching System (PMS)
Pantone Matching System or PMS, is the color mode for spot color space that was created by Pantone Corporation of the United States, which is mainly used for printing. It has now become an international standard for color matching and standardization. Pantone uses the same method as CMYK to produce so-called spot colors, also known as pure colors.
Pantone color card
You may wonder what is spot color? Briefly, spot color is pure color. All color generated by RGB and CMYK are mixed colors. Printing solid color with spot color, the color range can beyond the CMYK color gamut. Color gamut refers to the range of colors that can be expressed by a certain color mode, and also refers to the range of colors that can be expressed by specific equipment, such as monitors, printing machine, etc.
PANTONE Company makes the inks it can produce into color cards and then name it with corresponding color codes. Most printing manufacturers are equipped with standard color cards. As long as the customer provides the color code corresponding to the same Pantone color card, the printing manufacturer can find the correct color for printing according to the color code.
Color card
In addition to the American Pantone color card, currently commonly used international standard color cards include Germany’s RAL, Sweden’s NCS (Natural Colour System) and so on.
RAL color
The advantages of PANTONE Spot color printing.
1. The accuracy of printed color is up to 90%. It’s the best way to ensure color accuracy.
2. Higher reduction degree and wide color gamut
3. Suitable for high-quality or special printing technology.
Texture Paper
Textured paper, also called art paper, is a kind of special paper with special texture and certain color, so it does not need to be printed. When producing the packaging box,just cover the box with the texture paper, the box can show different effect.There is a wide variety of texture papers,such as Ivory board, kraft paper, fiber texture paper etc.
Brown kraft texture
Sterling gray linen
Deep black linen
Metal jean
Starbuck
Snake
It is widely used for exquisite book covers, high-end picture albums and brochures. The effect and quality of packaging boxes or other items made of texture paper is excellent. Although the cost is relatively higher, more and more people are willing to use art paper to make prints or packaging. Because what brings to them is a product with high differentiation, which are preferred by customers.
No matter what kind of color choice, it has its advantages and disadvantages. When choosing color mode, you need to take many factors into consideration, like color accuracy, cost, and effect. Only in this way can you make the packaging meet your own needs.
