Color is complex. For something so instrumental to the lives, the world of color is a deep rabbit hole of subtle nuances and inconsistent schools of thought. I have always been attracted to color and the various mediums its delivered through. During the research phase of the color conversion tools for Brandisty, the different complexities of color became very apparent. In this post, we explore color at a top level and arm you with some of the technical details you must know about color along with your brand.

Color models

Color could be represented in a huge selection of models. Each one of these models have different color spaces. At a very high level, this can be what you should find out about color models:

Digital: color as display by light.

Print: color represented with ink.

Perceptual: color as perceived from the human eye.

Colour spectrum a persons eye can interpret surpasses what can be presented within both digital and print color models. The way in which color is perceived can also be subjective and can differ person to person. Pantone Color Book is often used to convert color between digital and print color models. This really is regularly accomplished using ICC color profiles.

Color profiles

Converting between color spaces for many different devices is a pretty complex process. Its challenging to represent colors displayed on digital screen via printed mediums. Each printer has slightly different capabilities when mixing ink, and each medium being printed on (i.e. coated vs. uncoated paper, shirts, mugs, etc.) will respond differently for the ink.

Not long ago the International Color Consortium (ICC) was formed to tackle the issue. A quick little bit of history from their about page:

The International Color Consortium was established in 1993 by eight industry vendors with regards to creating, promoting and encouraging the standardization and evolution of an open, vendor-neutral, cross-platform color management system architecture and components. The outcome with this co-operation was the development of the ICC profile specification.

The 1st time I read that, it blew my mind. There exists a color consortium attempting to standardize the way the world uses color?! Who will of thought?

ICC color profiles are now popular for color conversion between digital and print devices. Whenever using various printers, you may be sent a specific device ICC profile to calibrate your print job with. Two common workspace color profiles for digital and print are:

These profiles are often the defaults of all Adobe products, and therefore are usually already installed on your personal computer. The download links are provided for reference.

Color spaces

Each color mode has numerous color spaces. Color spaces represent color in a variety of formats. For example, the purple block displayed could be represented within both digital (left side) and print (right side) making use of the following values:

In terms of branding you will in all probability encounter color represented in the following formats:

RGB (digital): RGB stands for Red, Green, Blue and refers to the user of color generated by light. Not all representations of light are equal, and the way color appears from a single digital device to the next can appear to be different. To really have consistent digital color, each device would need to be calibrated. RGB values will typically be represented with three digits between and 255; although you will sometimes encounter three values between and 1 in decimal form.

Hex (digital): Hexadecimal format is simply one other way of representing RGB values. Typically you will notice Hex values starting with a hash (#) followed by either three or six alpha numeric characters eysabm from -9 as well as a-f.

CMYK (print): CMYK means Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Key (black) and is regarded as the common print color space. CMYK could be a bit inconsistent from device to device as the color has been blended during print. Each printing device has different capabilities, in order to achieve print perfection each device will need to be calibrated. CMYK values will typically be represented with four digits between -100; though you will sometimes encounter three values between and 1 in decimal form.

PANTONE (print): Is actually a proprietary color space used primarily inside the printing industry but in addition has been utilized with manufacturing colored paint, plastics and fabric. When brands is going to be found in print, its an excellent idea to pick PANTONE colors. The main advantage of PANTONE over CMYK is PANTONE colors are premixed, where CMYK colors are mixed during print. Using PANTONE colors, a brand can maintain color consistency since PANTONE is definitely accountable for mixing the ink color. PANTONE color values can be represented in a variety of ways, but typically begin with either PMS or PANTONE and result in either C for Coated or U for Uncoated.

Color goes deep, but its a vital component of the way a brand is recognized. Using the information above you will be armed with the information required to maintain color consistency as the brand is spread through various mediums.