CMY to RGB

CMY to RGB – Print to Screen – with Hexadecimal values

Print and screen are two different worlds of colour. When printing, you work with reflected colour. For the screen you work with illuminated colour. A screen has a much brighter colour range but inks allow very fine colour control. The result is 2 only partially overlapping colour ranges. (gamuts)

The following table illustrates 64 CMY (Cyan, Magenta, Yellow (and K, black)) colours converted to their RGB values. They are approximately inverse but not closely. (see for example how 0% Cyan is not necessarily 255 Red) The ones closest to primary RGB values also show RGB examples for comparison.

The chart has 3 rows per colour – the first is CMY values, the second is the hexidecimal colour in HTML and CSS, and the third row is the RGB value. At the “corners” are the equivilant RGB colours in the spacer row. (red, blue, etc) You’ll notice that many of the colour changes are more subtle than a typical RGB palette.

At the bottom is another small chart comparing the key colour values.

Cyan Magenta Yellow Converted to Red Green Blue values – C x M
C/R	M/G	Y/B	C/R	M/G	Y/B	C/R	M/G	Y/B	C/R	M/G	Y/B
0	0	0	0	33	0	0	67	0	0	100	0
#FFFFFF			#F9C2D4			#EF78A5			#E2007F
255	255	255	249	194	212	239	120	165	226	0	127
RGB White*			–			–			RGB Magenta*
0	0	33	0	33	33	0	67	33	0	100	33
#FFFAC1			#F8C0A1			#EE787F			#E20065
255	250	193	248	192	161	238	120	127	226	0	101
–			–			–			–
0	0	67	0	33	67	0	67	67	0	100	67
#FDF774			#F6BE63			#EC7752			#E00048
253	247	116	246	190	99	236	119	82	224	0	72
–			–			–			–
0	0	100	0	33	100	0	67	10	0	100	100
#F9F400			#F3BD00			#E97815			#DF0029
249	244	0	243	189	0	233	120	21	223	0	41
RGB Yellow*			–			–			RGB Red*
33	0	0	33	33	0	33	67	0	33	100	0
#B7DFF7			#B9AACE			#B569A3			#AE007C
183	223	247	185	170	206	181	105	163	174	0	124
–			–			–			–
33	0	33	33	33	33	33	67	33	33	100	33
#B6DBBE			#B7A89F			#B46A7F			#AC0062
182	219	190	183	168	159	180	106	127	172	0	98
–			–			–			–
33	0	67	33	33	67	33	67	67	33	100	67
#B2D879			#B3A668			#B16B56			#AA1146
178	216	121	179	167	104	177	107	86	170	17	70
–			–			–			–
33	0	100	33	33	100	33	67	100	33	100	100
#ACD504			#AEA51E			#AD6B27			#A81B2B
172	213	4	174	165	30	173	107	39	168	27	43
–			–			–			–
67	0	0	67	33	0	67	67	0	67	100	0
#56BFF0			#6B92CA			#745BA0			#74047B
86	191	240	107	146	202	116	91	160	116	4	123
–			–			–			–
67	0	33	67	33	33	67	67	33	67	100	33
#54BCBB			#68909E			#725C7F			#721663
84	188	187	104	144	158	114	92	127	114	22	99
–			–			–			–
67	0	67	67	33	67	67	67	67	67	100	67
#4CB97C			#638F6B			#6D5D59			#6F2049
76	185	124	99	143	107	109	93	89	111	32	73
–			–			–			–
67	0	100	67	33	100	67	67	100	67	100	100
#3DB630			#5B8D32			#685E31			#6C262F
61	182	48	91	141	50	104	94	49	108	38	47
–			–			–			–
100	0	0	100	33	0	100	67	0	100	100	0
#00B2EB			#0085C6			#2A509F			#3D117B
0	178	235	0	133	198	42	80	159	61	170	123
RGB Cyan*			–			–			RGB Blue*
100	0	33	100	33	33	100	67	33	100	100	33
#00A9B8			#00819C			#28517E			#3B1B64
0	169	184	0	129	156	40	81	126	59	27	100
–			–			–			–
100	0	67	100	33	67	100	67	67	100	100	67
#00A287			#007D6F			#22525A			#38224A
0	162	135	0	125	111	34	82	90	56	34	74
–			–			–			–
100	0	100	100	33	100	100	67	100	100	100	100
#009F62			#007B4B			#175236			#352632
0	159	98	0	123	75	23	82	54	53	38	50
RGB Green*			–			–			RGB Black*

This chart compares the 8 key RGB values with the equivalent CMY. Note that most RGB values are too “hot” or saturated for printing and are thus not “safe”:

*RGB Colours	R (of 256)	G	B	CMY safe?
White(same)	255	255	255	Yes
Red	255	0	0	No
Green	0	255	0	No
Blue	0	0	255	No
Cyan	0	255	255	No
Magenta	255	0	255	No
Yellow	255	255	0	No
Black (K)	0	0	0	No

This page was inspired by the 4 planes of a 3D CMY colour cube. See www.colourcube.com for a real cube and more information.
David