Brochure printing and design can be done in many color modes. If you are new to printing or graphic design this might confuse you a bit. However with a little time and a healthy curiosity, it is easy to learn the color jargon for brochure printing. In this guide, I will share with you the three major color modes that you may encounter when printing trifold brochures.

Standard Red Green Blue
The standard Red, Green and Blue color mode usually refers to how we see graphic prints on a screen. RGB colors produce large amounts of other colors as the software or you yourself adjust the red, green and blue values to get the desired color hue. In most cases people use the RGB color for web graphic design. Also most image editing software use this as their standard or default color mode when manipulating design elements.

Printing in Cyan Magenta Yellow and Black
CMYK or Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Black pertain to a color mode for printing itself. It refers to the amounts of intensity of those four colors as they are combined. As color values are reduced in different levels, that is when you get the different hues. It is important to note that this technique can only produce smaller amounts of colors when compared to the standard RGB. However, this is the perfect color mode when you are ready to print your trifold brochures or any other prints for that matter. CYMK gives you the best image possible from the printing machines.

That is why it is important to convert your trifold brochure designs from RGB to CMYK mode once you are ready to hand them over to the printers. Once the conversion is done, you must also adjust the color hues once again, since there will be some significant changes in hue when the conversion occurs. After those minor adjustments however your trifold brochures should be ready for color printing in CMYK.

Selective Pantone PMS colors
Lastly we have the so called Pantone PMS colors. These are basically color inks that you or your printer can directly add in to the trifold brochure. They are pure inks and not a combination of different ones. So you use them to add a specific color if CMYK cannot quite do the job of printing your object or logo. Sometimes, people even use single pantome PMS colors in their color brochures and no other inks. This saves some money in printing color brochures since you would not need to go for the full CMYK 4 color scheme.

That should demystify some of the things that you may want to know about the colors in your brochures. Knowing these things is great since they can help with your decisions as you design color trifold brochures. Just remember these concepts well and you should not be lost.


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