165: Thou shall not ignore the constraints of color gamuts

Commentary Did you ever wonder why you can create an amazingly vibrant red onscreen but can’t seem to get it to print out with the same kind of intensity of color? The reason it’s not possible to translate certain colors from screen to paper has a lot to do with color gamuts. A color gamut represents the complete range of colors that any one color model is capable of producing in print. It also represents the complete range of colors that a device can capture, as with a camera or scanner, or a display, as with a computer screen. Screens use the RGB model to display color, and an RGB gamut is larger than the CMYK gamut used for four-color printing. This is why you can’t print that amazing red with CMYK—it’s outside the CMYK color gamut. Spot colors like Pantones are not dependent on the CMYK color gamut as they’re mixed from pigments, so a much brighter red can be achieved if printed as a spot color. This is true of many colors limited by a CMYK gamut. TS