What’s the Difference Between PMS, CMYK, RGB and HEX?

Think of Facebook, Yahoo, Coca Cola, Amazon, or just about any major brand. Imagine the colors they are associated with. For any organization, color consistency plays a huge role in helping with brand recognition, and even how people perceive the brand. PMS, CMYK, RGB, and HEX are the four main color matching systems used globally for ensuring color standardization across all platforms. In this short article, we give a brief overview of the difference between PMS, CMYK, RGB, and HEX.

PMS

PMS (Pantone® Matching System) is a standardized color matching system proprietary of the Pantone Company. The PMS has been the default system used in the offset printing industry, commonly for one or two-color print jobs. But, it has also steadily expanded into fashion, fabrics, and plastics as well. Pantone provides a color formula guide for designers and print companies to ensure consistency and accuracy in ink colors.

CMYK

CMYK (Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, and Black) is another color matching system using in the printing industry. The colors you see in newspapers, digital prints, and brochures use this system. It differs from PMS in how it is applied. Whereas PMS print is one solid color, a CMYK print is a combination of overlapping dots of the four ink colors. Different combinations of these color dots are used to give the print a full color-appearance on paper.

RGB

RGB (Red, Green, and Blue) is the default color matching system used onscreen (including the one you are reading this on). Various colors are achieved onscreen by combining the three colors in different amounts. Since this method uses light for its color system, it is not applicable for use in printing. The same level of vibrancy and contrast is difficult to achieve on print due to a much lower color gamut.

HEX

HEX (Hexadecimal Color) is used specifically for web design, but it is not a separate color system in itself. It is basically a shortcode for color values in the RGB matching system. A HEX color is represented by is a six-digit combination of alphanumeric characters. The first two numbers represent red, the middle two represent green, and the last two represent blue.

Don’t worry if you’re still confused. We at Print and Web Designer can help you navigate your way through the color wheel. For further details or any queries, feel free to contact us via email at .