How to Maintain Colour Consistency Across All Media

When it comes to branding, colour plays an important role since that is the first thing anyone notices about your brand. In fact, according to colour psychology, every colour denotes a different emotion. For instance, red signifies energy and youth, while blue is considered more trustworthy and professional. Therefore, it is only natural that a significant amount of time and thought is put into choosing the right colour scheme. This is essential for your brand image, since the brand’s mood is showcased through its colours and the colour palette helps in brand recognition.

However, once you are done choosing the perfect colour palette, a major issue is maintaining colour consistency across print and digital. Read on to understand.

Different Colour Systems

The problem with digital printing arises because of the different colour systems used for design and print. The Red Green Blue (RGB) colour system is mostly used for computer monitors, video and digital platforms, while CMYK (Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Black) and PMS (Pantone Matching System) are used for printing. The RGB colours appearing on your monitor cannot be replicated with a standard CMYK system. As a result, you will notice colour shifts, especially with bright and solid backgrounds.

So how does one keep brand colour consistent?

Use a Pantone Swatch Book

First, stop choosing colours as seen on the screen. In printing, due to the CMYK model, colours will be toned down compared to what you see on the digital monitor. Therefore, printing services recommend starting with a Pantone swatch book. This book contains hundreds of accurate colours. These colours are based on the PMS system and ensure that the colour consistency is not hampered, no matter where it is printed.

Another great piece of advice for making your brand colour appear similar across different media would be to use a Pantone with a CMYK equivalent.

Testing

To maintain colour integrity across all media, you need to be able to do colour matching. Even though the Pantone book provides an idea of the colours being printed, a lot of factors, like the paper being used, the finishes, and different printing methods, can impact the end results. In fact, the outcome may differ between printing services. In those cases, it will be better to procure a sample before rolling out the print materials.

Colour Matching

Given that your Pantone book does not have its CMYK equivalent, you need to do some colour matching yourself. The best way to do this is to get your Pantone printed in CMYK format and then compare it to the book. There is however a possibility that the end results will differ. You can create a grid of squares with the original swatch placed in the middle to help point out those differences. This way it will be easier for you to get the ink values changed accordingly afterwards.

Using Web-Safe Colours

You must understand that not all RGB colours produce the same results online. Therefore, when it comes to digital printing, using web-safe hexadecimal colours can provide some assurance of the colour integrity across browsers. The colour scheme uses only 216 colours so you will get a palette that will be similar to your brand.

In the end, when it comes to keeping colour consistency in digital printing, the responsibility resides not just on the shoulders of the web designer or the printing services. Even if you avail yourself of the best printing services in Mississauga, you still need to educate yourself about the different colour systems, so you can determine what will be suitable for your printing project.

Jessica Arnold is a specialist in blogging, article writing and press releases. With a degree in journalism Ms. Arnold started her career as a Communication Manager for a start-up.