Why are the colors on your screen different from printwork?

Everybody has at least made up a document on their computer once. This can be made via Word, InDesign, Powerpoint or a different program. After printing, some of the colors seem to be different from the original file. Why did they change in the printing process?

There are different reasons for why the colors change from your file to the printed document. These are the most common reasons:

CMYK and RGB

CMYK (cyaan, magenta, yellow, black) and RGB (red, green, blue) are different color systems. These color systems make up every color of your file. Screens use RGB to project their colors. And most designprograms use RGB to make a document as well. However, printers use CMYK colorschemes to print the files. If you upload a document that is made up in RGB colors, the printers will have to convert these to CMYK colors. In doing so, this can create a change in color. The printers will try to recreate the colors the best they could, this is however sometimes not possible. To keep the colors the same, we recommend uploading your file with a CMYK colorsystem instead of RGB. Want to know more about CMYK and RGB? Click here.

Screens and Paper

Every screen uses light to project images. With the use of light, colors will always be more vibrant and bright. RGB colors are based on light: the more light the brighter the color. If there is no light, the images will just be black. Thus, the lighter you turn your screen, the brighter the images will be. Paper, obviously, doesn't use any light. Therefore, images will be less vibrant and bright than on your screen. By saving your files in CMYK colors instead of RGB colors, your color will be the least different on paper than on screen.

The Height of your Screen

The height of your screen has a big influence on the color that your see on your screen. By placing your screen at eyelevel, you will see the most realistic color. Just try, by looking at your screen a little higher or lower the colors will be darker than on eyelevel. While creating a document, keep your screen at eyelevel!

The Papertype

The standard papertypes like 80 grams, 100 grams and 160 grams are bright white. If you use this paper, the colors will be the most vibrant and realistic to your document. But, we also have different papertypes that are not bleached. Therefore, the color of the paper will be darker. If you choose one of these papertypes, the colors will automatically be darker, depending on the color of the paper. For more information on our papertype, check our link!