FileGizmo glossary
CMYK vs RGB
RGB mixes red, green, and blue light and is how screens display color. CMYK mixes cyan, magenta, yellow, and black ink and is how printers reproduce it. RGB can show brighter, more saturated colors than CMYK ink can, which is why a design sometimes looks duller once printed.
Why colors shift between screen and print
The color you see on a screen and the color that lands on paper come from two different systems. A screen builds color by adding red, green, and blue light. A printer builds it by layering cyan, magenta, yellow, and black ink. Because light can be brighter than ink can, the two do not cover the same range, and that gap is why a glowing on-screen design can look flat once printed.
For everyday work this rarely bites. It matters when you send artwork to a commercial printer and expect the vivid screen version, then get back something more muted. Knowing the models exist helps you set expectations and ask the print shop the right question.
Working with images across both
Most web and office tasks live entirely in RGB, so you often never think about CMYK at all.
- Keep screen work in RGB and use the image converter to move between common web formats.
- Use the image compressor to size images for the web without touching their colors more than needed.
- For a commercial print run, ask the printer whether they want CMYK and let their workflow handle the conversion.
Both tools run in your browser, so your images stay on your device.
Frequently asked questions
Should I design in RGB or CMYK?
Design in RGB for anything shown on a screen, such as websites, social posts, and video. Prepare in CMYK for professional printing, since that is the ink model a press uses. A print shop will tell you which they expect.
Why do my printed colors look duller than on screen?
Screens emit light and can show very saturated colors. Ink reflects light and cannot reach the same brightness, so vivid RGB colors get compressed into the smaller CMYK range when printed.
Do I need CMYK for a home printer?
Usually no. Home and office printers accept normal RGB images and convert internally. CMYK matters mainly for commercial print jobs where a shop asks for it.