Colour Me Happy!

Mastering colour in print is difficult enough. However, as many print designers branching out to web design will discover, using colour on screen introduces a whole new set of problems. The old print knowledge is suddenly not applicable and you have to re-learn. We will try to deal with some of the issues here.

Colour on screen is “always” RGB

When you design for print you typically work with the CMYK colour space and a media that reflects light. Designing for the screen on the other hand means you have to consider the fact that, no matter which colour space you use, screens use RGB to project colour. A CMYK image on screen is in fact a CMYK image displayed in RGB, which is why it is always pointed out that CMYK colours on screen aren’t the colours you will get in print. They can’t be. Screens reproduce everything in RGB.

Variations between platforms

There are differences between Mac and Windows. (Noo... <g>) For example: MS Windows works with the screen resolution 96 ppi (pixels per inch), whereas Mac up to OS X.1 uses the resolution setting 72 ppi. That’s quite a difference, one that will effect how the eye perceives colour. Mac OS X 10.2 and later has had screen resolution reset to 100 ppi, so it’s technically closer to Windows. In reality, even four pixels difference is noticeable to the eye. Now, these are the built-in settings. Then you have to wrestle with the variables…

Variations between screen types

…CTR, LCD, TFT. 800x600 pixels or 1600x1260 pixels, 12" or 30"… What this means is that there is basically no way for you to absolutely “lock down” the appearance of your site design. You can only try to get as consistent a look as possible regardless of platform, screen type and user-specific settings. (Users can customise their settings you know. And some do.)

Continued here