Why do printed colors look different from my screen?

Screens emit light and can show brighter colors than ink can reproduce, and paper type also affects the result. Always proof before printing.

RGB to CMYK Converter

Screens use RGB light; print uses CMYK ink. Slide the RGB channels to preview how a color maps to print.

Red

Green

Blue

Or start from a hex

Total ink coverage130%

A light build — well inside the usual coated and uncoated limits.

#7c3aed

HEX

#7c3aed

CMYK

cmyk(48%, 76%, 0%, 7%)

Cyan

47.7%

Magenta

75.5%

Yellow

Black

7.1%

RGB and CMYK describe the same color family in two different ways. RGB adds light (screens); CMYK subtracts it with cyan, magenta, yellow and black ink (print). This converter gives a naive preview — for final print jobs, use your printer's ICC profile for the exact conversion.

Frequently asked questions

Enter RGB channel values from 0–255. The converter shows the equivalent CMYK ink percentages using the standard RGB-to-CMYK formula.

Good to know

The formula is subtractive: each ink absorbs part of the light.
Pure black in RGB is normally printed with just the K (black) plate.

Tools that pair with RGB to CMYK

RGB to CMYK is one of 33 single-page tools in this workspace. These are the ones that carry the job on — the color value moves between them, so nothing gets retyped or re-uploaded.

CMYK to RGBTurn cyan, magenta, yellow and black into a hex color.RGB to HexTurn red, green and blue channels into a hex code.Color PickerPick, fine-tune and copy any color in HEX, RGB or HSL.