Wonderful though computers are, and despite having streamlined the entire production process for graphic designers everywhere, they have certain limitations. For instance, computer monitors can only show us images in “RGB” (red, green, and blue) color. It is vitally important to understand this and how it relates to CMYK, because only then can we hope to avoid the biggest problem in the print industry today, which is the client saying, “those are not the colors I was expecting.”

Anything you see on your screen is RGB, a very wide color spectrum. Anything you see in print is reproduced using CMYK (or with Pantone colors, see Chapter 10), which is, alas, quite a narrow spectrum. Therefore, what you see on your screen may be a long way from what you will see in the printed result.

Getting the colors you want using CMYK is not always easy, and sometimes impossible. However, avoiding possible disaster is always possible, as long as you understand color.