Instead, each Pantone color is defined as a specific individual unit. The Pantone system varies from CMYK because it doesn’t use a combination of various particular colors. This provides a way for any manufacturer to match a color in print. This is still widely used today on most commercial printers to replicate tones and visuals, according to a standardized guideline for maximum color-matching and consistency. Pantone revolutionized the printing color process by creating a standardized system. When you want peak color accuracy, the Pantone Color Matching System (PMS) is the way to do. That’s because key (or black) is essentially treated as a primary color in this scheme as well. You might be wondering why the CMYK color model has four letters in its acronym instead of three, like RGB or RYB. To the human eye, this creates the desired color to appear on paper. Colors are created by mixing pinks and applying them to the paper surface under white light. In this subtractive color system, white is the blank slate. In the world of commercial printing (and perhaps even your home printer) and lithography, the CMYK color system applies. This level of precision lets you specify exactly what color of light you want to work with. In this system, a numerical value between 0 and 255 is assigned to each primary light color. To create white, you have to blend all primary colors in equal measure.įor that reason, televisions or computers only need to produce mixtures of red, green, and blue light. It starts with a blank black canvas (the display screen of any digital device like a TV, phone, or tablet), then mixes light to show color on the screen.

This system uses the sRGB color space and has practical limitations that prevent it from making all visible colors-it makes 16,777,216 colors instead. When you’re working with screen-based designs and colors, you’ll want to use this additive color model: RGB model. This subtractive color model is used when mixing pigments and has most of its applications in painting, art, and interior design. It’s the color model we all learned about in school. The RYB is also known as the “traditional color” wheel.

RYB The RYB is the color model used by artists Subtractive color models (like CMYK) are based on reflected light.Įach color model is used for something different, which is why it’s important to know which one applies. An additive color model (like the RGB model) is based on transmitting light.

There are two main categories of color models: subtractive and additive. Knowing the differences can make all the difference for whatever colorful project you’re about to tackle. The different color models apply to different uses of color, such as print, on digital screens, and in pigments. Why Are There Different Color Systems in the First Place?īecause there’s a whole world of color, and color is just too complicated and nuanced to be summed up with a single color model! No matter what you’re doing, if you’re working with color, you need to understand color theory and know which color model you’re working with. When an individual model is associated with a clear description of how the components should be interpreted (like viewing conditions, etc.), the resulting set of colors is called “color space,” which describes ways in which human color vision can be modeled. They’re a way of conceptualizing, discussing, viewing, and creating color in art, design, advertising, and more. What Is a Color Model?Ĭolor models are a way of specifying the visible spectrum of color using numeric values or using color components. In this post, we’ll explain what color models are, why we need several of them, and we’ll provide a quick overview of each major model to get you started understanding them. This was the most relevant color model for us as kids when our experiences working with color were mostly limited to blending finger paints or layering crayons.īut the world of color is much more complicated than that, which is why there are several color systems to help us navigate and understand the world of color. When we were in school, most of us learned about one color model: the RYB color model, which uses red, yellow, and blue as its primary colors.

Different types of blue colors