Ask a Question
Welcome to LED Display Screen Forums Q2A. This is a Q&A community for LED display screen enthusiasts, providing outdoor LED display screens, indoor LED display screens, and creative LED display screen FAQs. Our LED display screen discussion community is a global professional free LED Q2A, LED display manufacturing, LED screen testing and LED screen installation professional Q&A knowledge platform.


+1 vote
3 views

Why is RGB suitable for display devices but not for printing?

ago by (36.4k points)

3 Answers

+1 vote

Answer: RGB is an additive color model that produces colors by superimposing light and is suitable for light-emitting devices; while printing uses a subtractive color model (such as CMYK) that reflects specific colors by absorbing light. The two have different principles, and direct conversion will result in color difference.

ago by (32.1k points)
0 votes

The RGB color mode is a superposition of the three primary colors of red (R), green (G), and blue (B). Its principle is consistent with the luminous characteristics of display devices: screen pixels actively emit light to present rich colors in different intensities, especially good at expressing high saturation and high brightness colors, and can dynamically adjust the color gamut range to meet the needs of digital content creation and display.

However, printing uses the CMYK mode (cyan, magenta, yellow, and black), which relies on the reflection of ink to light to present colors. When printing, inks need to be superimposed through the principle of subtractive color mixing, and the color gamut range is naturally smaller than RGB. If RGB images are directly used for printing, bright colors that exceed the CMYK color gamut (such as fluorescent colors and pure red) will be distorted due to the inability to restore, resulting in color deviation or loss of details. In addition, RGB is an additive color mode, and the stronger the color light is mixed, the higher the brightness; while printing is a subtractive color mode, the more ink is superimposed, the darker the color, and the color logic of the two is opposite. Therefore, RGB is suitable for scenes where display devices actively emit light, but printing requires light to be reflected by ink, and needs to be converted to CMYK mode to match the physical limitations of the printing process to ensure accurate color restoration.

ago by (36.4k points)
0 votes

RGB underlying technology is based on the theory of human trichromatic vision and the principle of additive color mixing. The human retina contains three types of cones, red, green, and blue, which are sensitive to different wavelengths of light. The brain superimposes the three signals to form color perception. RGB technology simulates the human eye's color recognition mechanism by controlling the intensity combination of red (R), green (G), and blue (B) light.

In display devices, each pixel is composed of three sub-pixels (red, green, and blue light-emitting units). By adjusting the sub-pixel brightness (usually expressed in 0-255 values), 16.7 million color combinations can be achieved. Its core is additive color mixing: when the three colors of light are superimposed, the higher the intensity, the brighter the mixed color, and finally a full color range from black to white is formed. This technology is widely used in LED screens, digital cameras and other fields. It relies on light-emitting elements to actively output colors, which is essentially different from the subtractive color mixing mode of printing.

ago by (35.4k points)

Related questions

+2 votes
2 answers 68 views
68 views asked Sep 7, 2024 by LEDscreenforums (32.1k points)
+3 votes
3 answers 39 views
+1 vote
1 answer 39 views
+1 vote
1 answer 38 views
+1 vote
0 answers 25 views
+1 vote
0 answers 28 views
+1 vote
1 answer 31 views
31 views asked Aug 25, 2024 by LED-Manufacturers (63.6k points)
+2 votes
1 answer 39 views
+2 votes
1 answer 35 views
...