Color Settings
All printing is done in CMYK. Your artwork can be either CMYK or RGB, but RGB colors will be auto-converted into CMYK for printing. To prevent any surprising shifts in color appearance from this process of auto-converting RGB to CMYK, we encourage converting to or building in CMYK color mode when creating your design.
RGB colors (after conversion) may appear dull or desaturated when printed (and we're sure you don't want that!).
We've written a more in-depth explanation about the differences between RGB and CMYK below.
RGB vs CMYK - Which is Better for Print?
Printing is done using CMYK inks (Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and blacK), so if you supply your images in RGB (Red, Green, Blue) we must convert them to CMYK before we can print them.
RGB (Red, Green, Blue) colors are created by combining three different colors of light in your screen. If you look very closely at a TV or computer monitor, every image is made of dots of Red, Green, and Blue lights. If you are creating an image to be displayed on a computer, TV, or phone screen, RGB or HEX (another web-based color system) would be ideal for specifying your colors.
Alternatively, CMYK printing is done by combining four physical ink colors (cyan, magenta, yellow, and black) to produce all of the colors in your printed design. With CMYK printing, you can print a wide spectrum of colors, but it's not possible to replicate some of the very bright or neon colors you see on screen as those colors rely on the light in the screen for their intensity.
In some cases there is not a CMYK equivalent of an RGB color, so color shifting can occur and the RGB colors may appear dull or less saturated in print than it does on screen. This is why we strongly recommend that you provide your artwork as CMYK.
Some software programs, such as Adobe Illustrator and Adobe Acrobat have built-in functionality to better represent CMYK colors on computer monitors. If you have one of these software programs installed on your computer, it can help you convert and preview the artwork with better accuracy.
You can also use our online design tool to determine the CMYK color code for your desired color. For example. the color code for the color on this box's front panel is: C 100, M 0, Y 39, K 10.
While we are unable to guarantee color matching, the vast majority of our customers are pleased with the final appearance of color on their printed boxes.
Does Packlane Offer Color Matching?
Packlane does not offer color matching services at this time, and cannot guarantee the consistency of colors between multiple orders, or between the website display and resulting print.
Additionally, differences between RGB (Red, Green, Blue) and CMYK (Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, blacK) files can cause significant differences in how color appears. Printing is done using CMYK inks, so if you supply your images in RGB they will be automatically converted to CMYK. RGB colors may appear duller or desaturated when printed (and we’re sure you don’t want that).
While we are unable to guarantee color matching, the vast majority of our customers are pleased with the final appearance of color on their printed boxes.