HOW DO I?

Why translating CMYK values into RGB is not perfect

RGB is the native color mode for digital screens, therefore Pic Colors stores colors as RGB. This could have been a limitation for some creatives, because it is not always possible to work strictly in RGB or HEX. To expand its reach, Pic Colors enabled working with other color modes by using standard formulas. These formulas translate entered CMYK values into their closest RGB equivalent so they can be saved. This also means the listing of a color's CMYK is the result of calculating it from the saved RGB. You may find that after entering colors as CMYK values, Pic Colors may list slightly different values for the CMYK. Why? Because to save an entered CMYK color, Pic Colors must use the formula to convert it to RGB before saving it. So, the CMYK value listed by Pic Colors may be slightly different from what was entered.

Therefore, Pic Colors gives an alert when an entered CMYK value is not be same as the resulting value after conversion to RGB. Of course, because Pic Colors uses standard formulas this alert is just informational for digital projects — however — understanding this could be important for those working on print projects.

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How Pic Colors reports when the CMYK values to be saved will be different than those entered

In this example a CMYK color currently in the palette is edited from a yellow-green to the CMYK blue-green color 70-35-30-0.

Here are the steps:

1. Open color tile in Edit.
2. Confirm color mode is set to CMYK.
3. Enter the new CMYK values.
4. Pic Colors instantly translates the values to RGB and the resulting CYMK values. Pic Colors reports, as red numbers to the right of the value entry table, that after translation the CMYK colors to be saved will be 57.5-7.3-0-29.8.
   
5. Decision time.
   Color look good? Great, this is what Pic Colors will save for the CMYK.
   Don't like this result? Tap 'Cancel' under the New color tile to keep the current color in the palette unchanged.
   

Edit page opened with a tap to a color tile (or wrench icon at upper right).

Tap switch at upper right to change color mode. Enter values. Note alert shows if translation changes values.

Tap 'Cancel' under New color tile to abandon change, otherwise it saves.