So you have a colour palette for your brand and there are different break downs of each colour, but what’s the difference and why do you need them all? It’s confusing right, blue is blue?
Whilst there are lots of different shades and tones of one colour there are also different ways of making the same colour. It all depends where you’re using the colour, whether it is on screen, web or in print. Let me explain a bit more.
On Screen
Colours on screen are made up of light – Red, Blue and Green. This can be on a computer screen or your TV screen or in the cinema. If colours on images or your logo aren’t optimised to RGB you may not get the correct colours, sometimes colours can become very acidic if not optimised correctly. To ensure graphics and logos are viewed correctly on screen ensure you use the RGB colours for your brand.
Web
Colours for websites you may think these would be the same as on screen. This is true if you are uploading a PNG or JPG file, but to create the background or text colour on a website to match you brand colours you should use the HEX code. This is made up of 6 letters (A-F) and numbers (0-9), this language is understood in the code of a website. To check the HEX code of a colour, if you haven’t been supplied it, you can use this handy website (I find it really useful) https://www.ginifab.com/feeds/pms/cmyk_to_hex.html.
For print there are 2 different processes which can be used and sometimes printers use a mixture. The most well known way of print is using CMYK (cyan, magenta, yellow and black), this would be what you use on your home or office printer. In this case colours are mixed using different amounts of these 4 standard colours and are layered over each other on each pass of the head. This is a standard colour way which you should receive in a brand package.
Have you seen fluorescent colours on printed materials or metallics? These are classed as SPOT or Pantone colours. You can also get standard colours in Pantone or SPOT, this is just a different print process. These are normally added as a 5th or 6th colour when printed professionally, hence why you can get fluorescents or metallics. A lot of Pantone colours can’t be replicated exactly using CMYK (although some can be). Some print processes, for example on promotional items like pens or travel mugs, require only a Pantone or SPOT colour. If your brand doesn’t have a Pantone reference you can find a close match using a swatch book if you have one or this handy website: https://www.ginifab.com/feeds/pms/cmyk_to_pantone.php
Hopefully this has explained why you find different colours listed on a branding document and why you need them.
If you need assistance developing your branding or help understanding which colours you need to use please get in touch with me for a chat.