The crux with the colors

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How do you master the crux of the matter with colors? You are faced with this question at the latest when you have created a beautiful graphic on your computer at home, sent it to print and have the sobering result that does not at all reproduce THE colors as you have painstakingly composed them on the monitor.

Color systems

Plural? Yes, there is a multitude of different color-describing systems that have emerged over the decades, from Aristotle to J. W. v. Goethe to the present day.

In the computer age, this has become more color-intensive in terms of perception, RGB- (red - green - blue) with 16.8 million and CMYK- (Cyan - Magenta - Yellow - blacK) color system, with theoretically around 4 billion colors.

RGB are light colors, an additive color system created by mixing color and light, while CMYK inks and work subtractively.
With subtractive color mixing, parts of the color spectrum are removed, with additive color mixing, parts are added.

PANTONE is another system with originally 1,114, now 3,172 colors for the printing industry.

In terms of industrial paints, the most well-known today, RAL-system, which has its origins in the eponymous Reichs-ACommittee for Ls 1927 and at that time defined 216 colors for industrial exchange, today RAL Classic called.
In 2020, it was renamed RAL Design to a total of 1,825 colors. RAL Effect includes 420 solid colors and 70 metallic colors, while RAL Plastics as a color standard for the plastics industry comprises 100 colors.

Color not equal to color

With so many systems, it is not really surprising that color is not the same as color, but can vary by nuances. But how do you arrive at THE color that corresponds to the color reproduction on the monitor on the printed product?

There are two ways, one free of charge, the conversion of a color from one color system to the other, and one costly way, by calibrating your monitor or purchasing a calibrated monitor, e.g. EIZO-monitors, which are delivered to the end customer from the factory with an elaborate calibration and the resulting color fidelity.

Calibrate monitor

The professional calibration of monitors is carried out by the manufacturer using Color Analyzers carried out. However, not all manufacturers attach great importance to precise calibration that also satisfies designers. Some manufacturers have therefore specialized in the production of special graphic design monitors and offer them for a corresponding fee, which is rather too high for private users.

An approximation that is also affordable for end users is made possible by the so-called. Colorimeter and Spectrophotometersuch as the Display Plus HL (about 200,- Euro) and the Nix Spectro L (around 500 euros). With these, calibration for print output is satisfactory. With appropriate care, they come close to professionally calibrated monitors,

This means that there are certainly ways to calibrate monitors in order to achieve an approximate(!) color identity between the display and the print result. Approximated, because it is not technically possible to achieve 100 percent congruence between monitor and print image, at least not with reasonable effort.

However, if you add the surcharge for a good measuring device to the monitor price, you can purchase an already calibrated monitor, possibly even cheaper ...

Color conversion

Monitors therefore provide the RGB-color spectrum, which is why RGB values are converted into printable CMYK-values must be converted. This is done automatically when saving a file for print products and can still be influenced by selecting the color profile.

Since RGB-If colors are perceived more strongly on the monitor, the printed product is usually paler and less appealing, which means that disappointment is inevitable.

To make matters worse, the RGB-color gamut, or color space, larger than that of CMYK is. This means that not in CMYK colors must be "artificially implemented".

It is therefore helpful to save each graphic file in the CMYK-color space, so there is no need for conversion and you only work with printable colors.

While the Color model each color in three-dimensional color space also includes the theoretically representable colors, the color space the colors that can actually be printed.

The individually selectable in graphics programs Color profile is used to convert a color into a different color. color space.

Color equals color

After all the color theory, the question mentioned at the beginning: how do you achieve the desired color result?

In addition to a calibrated monitor, a rather banal aid is conceivable. Everyone knows the paint department in DIY stores, which offers to produce any desired color using paint mixers.

Color charts provide an initial basis for decision-making and detailed catalogs ultimately enable fine-tuning of the colors.

So if you want to define the background color, e.g. of a flyer, you note down the desired color from the catalog, which usually represents RAL colors.

With the Online-RAL CMYK converter the CMYK-values of a RAL-color. In the graphics program, select the following as the fill for the example flyer CMYK-value - and voilà - you have your desired color, which may look a little different on the monitor than on the color chart in the catalog, but is exactly the same in print.

It is also a good idea to have several color cards and RAL-colors in which you want to design the flyer. This gives you an immediate impression of whether the colors harmonize with each other or whether you should choose a different color combination.

Program tip

While Adobe Creative Suite CSx, for example, used to be the software of choice for designers and graphic artists on Windows platforms, it has been discontinued and is now mainly offered as a subscription only. Serif (Affinity product range - Designer - Photo - Publisher, as well as a number of add-ons) positively differ from these cost-intensive licensing models.

In addition, the one-off fee is extremely moderate, but the scope of services is absolutely comparable with Adobe products.

Very good instructional videos facilitate familiarization, and the support is also exemplary, usually responding within 24 hours. For more complicated questions, you can also send in an example file and receive the solution not only well explained in text form, but also as a live example in the modified file sent in.

Conclusion

As is usually the case, everything can be a little more, but it doesn't have to be in order to achieve a good print result that corresponds to the ideas you had in mind when designing.

With excellent equipment and the requisite expertise, it is easy to achieve a professional result. However, the art often lies in generating satisfactory, even convincing products with limited resources, a good dose of basic knowledge and a little creativity.

This article is intended to contribute to this. Please let us know of any suggestions that are missing here so that they can be added here.