What’s on the RGB & CMYK poster
RGB against CMYK, side by side.
- RGB: Additive: red, green and blue light
- RGB: Screens, cameras, projectors
- RGB: Wider gamut, bright saturated colour
- RGB: sRGB, Adobe RGB, Display P3
- RGB: 0 to 255 per channel
- CMYK: Subtractive: cyan, magenta, yellow, key
- CMYK: Ink laid on paper
- CMYK: Narrower gamut, no true neon
- CMYK: Profile depends on press and stock
- CMYK: 0 to 100 per cent per channel
- Design in RGB only if you convert and check early. Vivid RGB greens and oranges have…
Convert once, at the end, using the printer's own profile. Repeated round trips between the two models degrade the file.
Questions about the RGB & CMYK poster
- What’s on the RGB & CMYK poster?
- RGB against CMYK, side by side. RGB: Additive: red, green and blue light; RGB: Screens, cameras, projectors; RGB: Wider gamut, bright saturated colour; RGB: sRGB, Adobe RGB, Display P3; RGB: 0 to 255 per channel; CMYK: Subtractive: cyan, magenta, yellow, key; CMYK: Ink laid on paper; CMYK: Narrower gamut, no true neon; CMYK: Profile depends on press and stock; CMYK: 0 to 100 per cent per channel; Design in RGB only if you convert and check early. Vivid RGB greens and oranges have…. Convert once, at the end, using the printer's own profile. Repeated round trips between the two models degrade the file.
- Who is the RGB & CMYK poster for?
- RGB & CMYK belongs to the Art & Design section rather than to a school year, because design is not something one grade owns. Anyone learning digital design can pin it up — a beginner, a student mid-course, or someone revising years later.
- When should you use the RGB & CMYK poster?
- Use it before starting any file that is going to end up on paper. A wall chart earns its place by being glanceable from where the work is happening, so RGB & CMYK belongs on the wall where that design work actually happens, within glancing distance, rather than filed away.
- What other posters go with RGB & CMYK?
- Bezier Curves, Bleed & Trim and Colour Profiles sit alongside RGB & CMYK in the Art & Design section. Printed together they make a wall rather than a single sheet, which is how a reference set actually gets used.Bezier CurvesBleed & TrimColour Profiles
- Is the RGB & CMYK poster free to download and print?
- Yes. RGB & CMYK downloads as a free PDF with no account, no email and no watermark, like everything else in the Art & Design section. Print as many copies as you like for a home, a classroom, a library or a tutoring group; reselling the file is the only thing the licence rules out.Read the licence
- What size does the RGB & CMYK poster print at?
- RGB & CMYK is a vector PDF laid out for US Letter, and prints on A4 with Fit to page — the same file, no separate download. Because every mark on it is drawn rather than photographed, it stays sharp enlarged to A3, A2 or A1 at a copy shop. Colour carries emphasis only, so a greyscale print of RGB & CMYK loses nothing.Printing guide
Related posters
Charts that sit alongside RGB & CMYK on the same wall.
Browse every Art & Design poster, or start from the full catalogue.