Brand guidelines

What is the difference between HEX, RGB and CMYK?

Short answer

RGB and HEX describe colours for screens, as mixes of red, green and blue light; HEX is simply RGB written as a six-character code, such as #FF5733. CMYK describes colours for print, as percentages of cyan, magenta, yellow and black ink. Use HEX or RGB for websites, apps and social media, and CMYK for anything printed.

Three ways to write the same colour, and where each one is used.

RGB and HEX: colour for screens

Screens make colour by mixing red, green and blue light, each from 0 to 255. RGB writes those three numbers out; HEX writes the same three numbers in base 16 as one short code, which is easy to paste into websites and design tools. Both always describe the same colour.

CMYK: colour for print

Printers mix cyan, magenta, yellow and black inks. Screens can show some bright colours that ink cannot reproduce, so a vivid screen colour may print duller. That is why a brand sets its CMYK values deliberately, rather than letting software convert them at the last minute.

Keeping all three in your guidelines

Give every brand colour all three values, so nobody converts them by eye. In Melon Cut Guidelines each colour shows a swatch, gradients included, with its HEX, RGB and CMYK values and a Copy button for each.

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