Locked lesson.
About this lesson
Learn the differences between RGB colors and the advanced CMYK or PANTONE color formats which are required by some commercial printers.
Lesson versions
Multiple versions of this lesson are available, choose the appropriate version for you:
2016, 2019/365.
Quick reference
Creative Ideas - Color Codes
Easily find the RGB, CMYK, and/or PANTONE colors to communicate with professional and commercial print companies.
When to use
Identify colors, set exact colors, and communicating those specifics to commercial printers is essential to the professionally printed appearance of your publications.
Instructions
- Select any text that has color or text you would like to apply color to.
- Either right-click and choose the font color button on the mini-bar.
- Or click the Home Ribbon and the Font Color button.
- On the Font Color list, select the More Colors button.
- Observe the 3 tab choices: Standard, Custom, PANTONE.
- Choose the color style, then set the numbers, or recite them to your print vender.
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- 00:05 Okay, this is just a short lesson about color.
- 00:09 Because the color you see on the screen here,
- 00:11 this green color, has glowing light coming off of the monitor.
- 00:17 If I were to print this I can assure you the color on the piece of
- 00:20 paper which is now reflecting light
- 00:23 is going to look a lot different than what you see on the screen.
- 00:26 So if it is that big a deal to you about the color you need to know about color
- 00:31 measurements, meaning the RGB colors, which stand for red, green, blue.
- 00:37 The CMYK, which stands for cyan, magenta, yellow, black, or
- 00:41 the pantone colors which are used by most standardize and commercial printers.
- 00:46 It's a standardized color matching system originally used for graphics designers but
- 00:51 now completely used industry-wide across the board.
- 00:55 So I'm not here to give you a complete and total color lesson.
- 00:59 I'm just here to tell you, if you're printing from a home office or
- 01:02 small business office and
- 01:03 it's just a general flyer, your RGB colors are going to be fine.
- 01:07 If you want to step it up and make sure, maybe you'resending it off to
- 01:12 another home office to be printed, you might want to use your CMYK colors.
- 01:16 Just so your advanced level printers will always ask you for a CMYK.
- 01:23 But professional commercial industry printers,
- 01:26 they're going to want you to go with Pantone.
- 01:28 Are you prepared?
- 01:30 Do you know what numbers to give them, because they will want to know
- 01:32 specifically what color numbers to give you.
- 01:35 So right over here on the right hand side, I did a little screenshots.
- 01:38 This green color right here on the screen, the green, happens to be in RGB code,
- 01:44 the red is 128, the green 165 and the blue is 9.
- 01:48 In CMYK, the cyan is 46, magenta is 6, yellow is 98, black is 5.
- 01:53 And there are times where I've got people asking me to design things and
- 01:56 I will specifically ask them give me your color codes
- 02:00 because I want to be as exact as possible and I will type them in.
- 02:03 And then, of course, we have the Pantone colors.
- 02:06 Now, I personally don't work a lot with Pantone,
- 02:08 but I haven't ever sent anything to a commercial printer, you might have to.
- 02:13 And so in that case, you're going to want to go maybe to a paint store or
- 02:17 an art store and
- 02:18 get a color palette of colors which will list the Pantone colors for you.
- 02:23 So you can actually look at them on paper as a reflecting light and
- 02:27 choose the correct color at that point.
- 02:29 So how do you find the color that's being used right now?
- 02:33 I'm going to go ahead and double click trader, right here.
- 02:36 And up on my Home ribbon on my font color, hit the drop down arrow.
- 02:42 Notice that this green is chosen.
- 02:43 When I float my mouse there it says RGB 128, 165 and 9.
- 02:46 Well if I can go a little deeper into more colors this is where I could
- 02:52 tell someone else, well, my RGB codes are these three numbers.
- 02:57 But for that same color at CMYK they're these numbers 46, 698 and 5.
- 03:02 And then I could go to Pantone and I could tell them, but for Pantone it's 375C.
- 03:06 That makes all the difference in the world to printers.
- 03:12 So keep in mind that that is how you find your colors.
- 03:16 You simply highlight the word that is colored, go to your home,
- 03:20 highlight the font color and then go to more colors.
- 03:23 And there they all are, right in there.
- 03:25 Okay, I hope that helps you.
- 03:27 Thank you so much.
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