21/08/2026
Why does your print never quite match what you see on screen?
This usually comes down to one thing: RGB vs CMYK.
When you’re working on a screen, you’re seeing RGB. That stands for Red, Green, Blue.
Screens create colour using light. By mixing different intensities of these three colours, they can produce a wide range of visible colours. This is called additive colour mixing, and when all three combine at full strength, you get white.
The key point is this: screens can show more colours than print can reproduce.
Now printing works differently.
In print, we use CMYK: Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Black.
Instead of light, print uses ink. This is subtractive colour mixing, where each layer of ink reduces reflected light from the paper. In theory, combining all inks moves toward black.
So, in simple terms:
RGB is light (screens).
CMYK is ink (print).
Because they work in completely different ways, a colour that looks vibrant on screen may appear more muted when printed. It is not a mistake; it is a limitation of the process.
This is why colour management matters so much in design and print production.
So here is the real question…
Have you ever had something printed that looked completely different to what you expected on screen?
