Colors, vectors & trimming
One color four color values: HEX, RGB, CMYK & Pantone
When it comes to colors, it is important to know: Not every color looks the same everywhere. Whether a color appears on a screen or on paper makes a big difference – and that’s why different color values are needed.
HEX or RGB values are used for digital media such as websites, social media posts or presentations on the monitor. These color specifications work with light, i.e. the colors glow on the screen. This makes it possible to display many different shades of color. Example: A strong red has the HEX value #FF0000 and in RGB 255/0/0.
As soon as something is printed in digital printing, other rules apply. Here you work with the CMYK color model. This stands for cyan, magenta, yellow and key (black). These four colors are printed on top of each other. The color spectrum is smaller than on the screen – which is why some tones appear somewhat less bright in print. A typical red in the CMYK system would be 0/95/91/0.
If it has to be particularly precise and uniform – for example, for a logo that should always look the same, whether on a business card, a T-shirt or a trade fair wall – Pantone colors are used. Pantone works like an international color recipe book with over 2,000 firmly defined tones. Every Pantone color looks identical all over the world. A well-known example is Pantone red186C.
In short:
HEX or RGB color values are used for screens and online projects.
CMYK is used for normal printing.
For absolute accuracy with brand colors and e.g. screen printing Pantone is the right choice.
Important
Not all graphics are the same: JPG/PNG versus vector file
For high-quality printing, it is not enough to use a small JPG or PNG. These image files consist of individual pixels. If they are enlarged, they immediately lose their sharpness – the contours become blurred, staircase effects (“pixelated”) occur and the quality suffers visibly. Although such files are well suited for photos or for display on the Internet, they very quickly reach their limits in print.
Vector graphics (e.g. AI, EPS, PDF or SVG) work completely differently. They are not based on pixels, but on mathematically calculated lines, areas and curves. This means they can be scaled to any size without any loss of quality – from a small icon to a ten-meter-wide billboard. The edges always remain razor-sharp.
Another advantage of vector files: fonts can be embedded or converted into paths. This ensures that texts and logos are displayed correctly – even if the fonts originally used are not installed on every computer. This reliably prevents errors or unwanted font changes.
Conclusion: Vector files are indispensable for professional printing. They guarantee razor-sharp results, clean color reproduction and absolute flexibility in terms of size. Pixel graphics such as JPG or PNG are good for digital use, but can only be used to a very limited extent for print productions.
Important
Cropping, safety distance & the "speed camera" trap
When printing, there is an effect known as “flashes”. This refers to narrow, white lines that can become visible at the edge of a motif if the paper slips slightly during cutting. A bleed looks as if someone has drawn a thin white border with a ruler – and this looks very unprofessional in the finished print.
To avoid these unsightly edges, every print file needs a so-called bleed. This means that the motif or background is created 3 mm larger all around than the actual final format. Everything that is to appear “borderless” (e.g. colored areas, photos or background graphics) must therefore protrude into this bleed area. This ensures that there are no white edges, even with the smallest cutting tolerances.
It is also important that we can only use clean print PDFs without bleed or register marks. Although these marks are intended for the print shop internally, they must not be included in the final layout – otherwise they would be printed and visible on the finished product.
To summarize:
“Blitzer” = disturbing white edges due to cutting tolerances.
Avoidance: always create a 3 mm bleed around the edge.
Elements that fall off the edge (backgrounds, images, etc.) must protrude into the bleed.
Please supply print data without marks – this is the only way to achieve clean, professional results.
Example: Let’s take a DIN A4 poster with the dimensions 210 x 297. For printing, the document must be created with a bleed margin (3 mm all around). The final format must therefore be 216 x 303 mm. This additional bleed is shown in yellow on the image (the area between the red and blue line).
It is important that the orange background area is INSIDE the trim edge, as the cutting machine may not quite hit the red line, but may cut slightly further to the right. As a result, the finished end product will have a white area if the orange background is not in the trim edge: the so-called “bleed”.