# RGB vs. CYMK. Which do you use?



## dhearn (Aug 22, 2008)

Just wondering. I have seen discussions in the forum with some people saying that they print on their DTG machines using RGB and others using CMYK. What is the difference based on your experience? Why one over the other?


----------



## PositiveDave (Dec 1, 2008)

RGB has a wider colour gamut than CMYK, (it can print more colours), and is a smaller file, (three channels rather than four), but at some point it must be converted to CMY for printing. It is generally better to leave that until the last minute to avoid losing any colours. So work in RGB and let the RIP do the conversion when you print.


----------



## cavedave (Dec 5, 2006)

While everything PositiveDave said was true, the color gamut of all the garment printers is so small it doesnt matter.
You can certainly calculate a better underbase from RGB than CMYK which is why I would recommend it, other than that so long as its all colour managed properly there are not any other real advantages. 

It also depends on how you print and settings used, for example in CorelDraw in defaults to convert everything to CMYK when you go File - Print to a PostScript device anyway, in PhotoShop its an option. So depends on your RIP and its work flow etc... always good to ask your supplier of the RIP and best settings to use.


Best regards

-David


----------



## zoom_monster (Sep 20, 2006)

Good info from both Daves. 
One thing that would be good to visualize as well...if you work in a program such as photoshop, and your screen is calibrated(and you have the right profile), is to preview a rendering of RGB and CMYK. While this is not exact, it does give you and idea of what colors are in and out of gamut and what colors you may want to select and accentuate. RBG will give you the purest starting point, but if you can wrap your head around what the difference is, you'll be able to compensate if needed and evaluate if a particular graphic is well suited to the process. Using color charts to pick colors from is also really helpful. You can have a sample from your machine that has every conceivable color on a grid and you can compare that to what you see on screen.


----------

