Hey friends! Dave here with Transfer Express, and today we are covering
the color models and modes. That's right, we're going to learn the differences between rgb, cmyk
and spot colors, and, how those modes relate to t-shirt design printing...
and of course our custom printed transfers so are you ready to learn let's jump in!
If you're new to the channel transfer express is the leading supplier of custom screen printed
and digital heat transfers for the apparel decorating industry with two facilities in
Ohio and Arizona we're equipped to meet the demands of our customers nationwide
now we are dedicated to customer service and helping grow your custom t-shirt business is our
number one priority everything we do is focused on making sure we send high quality fashionable
custom transfers on time and on a budget we've seen a huge increase of custom uploaded artwork
since we launched the new vector pricing and our vector artwork handling to transferexpress.com
of course with the rise of custom artwork we want to ensure your files are going to
print exactly how you expect them to now whether you're a pro or just getting started in design and
t-shirt printing it's important to understand the differences between rgb and cmyk color modes for
your artwork it can help you accurately represent colors and avoid those dreaded
color shift surprises when printing so let's start with rgb. So, rgb stands for red green blue
essentially it's the light that we see it's an additive color model meaning that if we combine
the colors together they make white and if we remove them all we have the absence of light
so it's black now this is how computer monitors and phone screens work and rightfully so the
color mode we select when designing for the web things like digital photos or social media posts
videos website images or icons or even those nice looking infographics or ebooks are all in rgb now
cmyk on the other hand is how we replicate colors with ink this is a subtractive model opposite of
rgb meaning in cmyk removing all of the color is white and combining all of the color creates black
of course printed materials are typically printed with a combination of inks on a substrate
now think of your at-home printer if you still have one and it's most likely got four ink colors
that then could be combined to make any color cyan magenta yellow and black or also referred
to as key which is where that k comes from in cmyk and cmyk is common for any printed material
we're talking business cards t-shirts stickers billboards posters packaging menus and more you
get the idea so if you're designing anything to print you should be using the cmyk color space
this is going to ensure that your colors look accurate now while it may look a little bit dull
on screen compared to an rgb equivalent that's okay now this is because rgb has a wider color
gamut than cmyk meaning that it could replicate more color combinations than cmyk and physical
inks can and as you can see here in this diagram if the entire circle is the visible light that we
as humans could see the area inside the yellow line are the colors that we could recreate with
rgb in light and then here inside the blue line is what we could accurately replicate with inks
in cmyk regardless of the design program you're using it is super easy to switch and select your
color modes so in photoshop you can just navigate right up to the top click image and then click
mode if you're designing vector artwork in adobe illustrator you can navigate down from the file
menu go to document color modes and select the one that you need now if you're using coreldraw
head on up to tools and click color management from there you'll see the primary color mode
where you could swap between cmyk and rgb now how does this relate to t-shirt printing
well if you're uploading your own artwork it is super important to use cmyk color mode when
printing with any of our full color transfers we're talking our ultra color transfer line
or even our full color digital cad prints now this is going to ensure with what you see on screen
is exactly how it's going to print if your artwork is in rgb it will eventually get converted to cmyk
color before printing which could lead to some surprise color shifts in the finished product
now for our screen printed transfers like our goof proof hot split or elasto prints you'll be picking
your specific ink colors or spot colors before your file actually goes to print for me personally
i just usually design in cmyk unless i know i am making something specifically for the web
or social media an easy view online designer it's super easy to adjust the colors on your
uploaded artwork to one of our 70 plus standard ink colors you'll know they aren't a standard
ink color because of the exclamation point in the color swatch here on the left hand side
with your uploaded file let's just click in here and find the closest color equivalent of course
if you need your spot colors to be exact you could specify a pantone number and will match the inks
spot-on for an additional fee now one super handy tool to have is our color selector it's the actual
ink we use heat pressed onto real fabric it takes 102 physical screen printing screens
to create this little guide just to ensure that you are getting the spot on accurate colors for
your screen printed transfers but i hope that you learned some fun things today about color and
color modes of course if you have any questions leave them down in the comment section below or
email us at info transferexpress.com we are always happy to help also make sure you're subscribed
and stay up to date on all of the helpful t-shirt printing tips that we're dropping
every single week but until next time i'm dave and happy pressing on camera rolling that was creepy