A quick guide to colours

Different colour codes are used in different methods of reproduction:

Pantone (PMS)

Used to do spot colour printing in screen and offset printing.
PMS stands for Pantone Matching System. C or U, which follows the colour code, stands for coated (coated paper) and uncoated (uncoated paper).

CMYK

Used in four-colour printing. The abbreviation stands for Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Key (black). A CMYK colour is described by the percentage combination for each colour.

RGB

Is used to specify the colours on a computer screen. Suitable applications include Microsoft Word and PowerPoint, etc.
This stands for RED, GREEN and BLUE. RGB colours are described as a value from 0-255 for each colour. All digital images work in the RGB colour space.

HEX


Used for websites, for example, and applications like Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint.
The colour value consists of three characters pairs comprising a number and/or character from 0-9 and A-F).

NCS


Used for textile printing and painting finishes. This stands for Natural Colour System and is a colour system based on a division of brightness, hue and saturation.