CMYK vs RGB: why your print looks duller than your screen

What actually shifts

Most colours convert with no visible change. The ones that move are the highly saturated blues, greens and oranges — the shades a screen makes by driving one channel to maximum brightness. Ink cannot go that bright, so the conversion lands on the nearest achievable colour, which usually reads slightly darker and less vivid.

Pure black is the other common surprise. On screen it is the absence of light. On press, black text prints as single-channel black ink, while a large black area needs a rich black mix to avoid looking washed out.

What to do about it

If colour accuracy matters — brand colours especially — design in CMYK from the start so what you see is already achievable. If you are working in RGB, convert before you finalise, so any shift happens while you can still adjust rather than as a surprise on delivery.

• Ask your designer for your brand colours as CMYK values, not just hex.
• For large solid blacks, use a rich black rather than 100% K alone.
• Avoid judging colour on an uncalibrated laptop screen — most run brighter and cooler than reality.

The specifications this applies to

For reference, here is how it works out on the products this comes up on most often.

• Flyers — 148 × 210 mm finished, 3 mm bleed, 300 DPI minimum, from ₹2.5 per unit with a minimum of 250.
• Posters — 297 × 420 mm finished, 3 mm bleed, 200 DPI minimum, from ₹45 per unit with a minimum of 10.
• Standard Visiting Cards — 89 × 51 mm finished, 3 mm bleed, 300 DPI minimum, from ₹2 per unit with a minimum of 100.

Ordering

Every file is checked automatically before printing, so a mistake in any of this is caught while it can still be corrected rather than after a run is on paper.

Standard delivery is free to every PIN code in India — two working days to a metro, up to twelve to the islands — and prices include GST, so the figure on the product page is the figure charged. Add a GSTIN at checkout and the invoice carries it for input credit.

If something still looks wrong

Preflight catches size, resolution, colour mode and page count automatically, and it errs toward warning rather than refusing — a file that would print acceptably is never blocked just because it is not perfect.

What it cannot judge is whether the design says the right thing. Proofread names, phone numbers and dates with a second pair of eyes before approving, because approval is the point at which the file goes to a press and the cost of a change stops being zero.

Common questions