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- In this movie, we'll discuss
the two document color modes

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that are available to
you inside Illustrator,

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and those are RGB and CMYK.

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And only one mode can be at
work inside any given document.

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And so you may recall, if you
go up to the file menu and

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choose the New command,
that you can see the

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color mode listed down here
in the Advanced section,

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and that's going to change
automatically when you select

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a profile so if you select a
print profile, your color mode

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is going to change to CMYK,
but if you switch to any

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of the other profiles,
web through basic RGB,

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all four of them are going to
switch the color mode to RGB,

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which is generally the way
you're going to want to work,

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which surprises a lot of folks,
but the truth to the matter

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is that RGB is the more
flexible color mode while

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CMYK is designed specifically for print.

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And, so, let's take a
look at how they work.

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Both RGB and CMYK stand
for the color primaries

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so in the case of RGB, we
have red, green and blue

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and these are light, by
the way, so light that's

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being projected by a device
or captured by a device.

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So scanners and cameras are RGB devices,

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as is your computer screen,
your gadgets and devices

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and anything else that lights up.

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Now because you're starting
with a black screen,

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once you add light, you're
going to start brightening

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things up and to give you a
sense for what this looks like,

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I'll go up to the Window menu
and choose Color in order

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to bring up the color
panel, in my case, there's

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a check mark in front of
color so I don't want to

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choose the command because
that would hide it,

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and then, once you've
brought up your color panel,

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go ahead and click on
this double arrow icon

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a couple of times to expose
your primary sliders.

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In my case, red, green and blue.

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If you don't see the RGB
sliders, then you want to

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click on this fly out menu
icon in the upper right

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corner of the panel and choose RGB.

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Now, notice that you
can change these values

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from 0, that's the lowest, that basically

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turns the color off,
all the way up to 255,

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which is the highest setting,
and so what that does

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is it gives you 256 variations.

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1 through 255 and then you
also have the option of 0.

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And so when you crank up
the red and green values,

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and you take the blue
value all the way down

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to its minimum, you end up with yellow.

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If you crank the green
and blue values up to 255,

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and you take the red value
all the way down to 0,

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then you end up with cyan, and if you take

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the blue and red values
all the way up to 255,

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and you take that green value down to 0,

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then you end up with
magenta, and I want you to

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notice here inside the color panel

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how these sliders update on
the fly so you can actually

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preview the color you're going to get.

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If I move this triangle
mid-way down the red slider,

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I can see I'm going to
get purple, and I can also

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by the way, as I modify
the red value, I can see

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the green and blue
sliders update on the fly.

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And so Illustrator's always
trying to give you a sense

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for the color that you're going to get

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because, obviously,
there's all kinds of colors

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besides red, green, blue,
yellow, cyan, and magenta.

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For example, if I crank
all these values up

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to their maximum, we end
up with the brightest

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color there is, which is
white, and if we were to

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take all these values down
to their minimum of 0,

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then we'd end up with no
light, which gives us black.

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Alright, now let's take
a look at CMYK, which is

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named for the primaries
cyan, magenta, yellow

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and the key color which is black.

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And as opposed to light, these are inks,

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and so unlike a screen, where you start

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with blackness and then
you brighten things up,

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where print is concerned, you start with

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a bright white page and
then you darken things

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by adding ink to it, which
is why when you start

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mixing the primaries, you
end up with darker colors.

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And so what I'll do is I'll
go ahead and click on this

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fly out menu icon again and switch to CMYK

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so we can see those CMYK sliders and I'm

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going to go ahead and
crank cyan and magenta

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up to their maximums of 100% and I'm going

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to take the yellow and black
values down to their minimums

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of 0% and so as you can see here,

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when you maximize the
cyan and magenta values,

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and you take out yellow and
black, you end up with blue.

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If you crank up the
magenta and yellow values,

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and then you take the cyan
and black values down to 0,

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you end up with red, so who knew that red

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is actually made in part with yellow?

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And then, if you crank
the yellow and cyan values

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up to their maximum, not surprisingly,

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you end up with green,
but notice that it's not

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nearly as bright as the RGB green

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so we're ending up with
more muted colors over here.

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I'm not showing what
happens when you add black,

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and that's because black
is a darkening agent,

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as you can see, so in
our case, we're ending up

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with the darker version of green.

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So the big question is,

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"When should you choose which color mode?"

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Well, you want to use the RGB mode

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any time you think your
document might be viewed

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on screen so if you're going to the web or

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you're creating a .PDF file
or an e-book, you want RGB.

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If you're creating something for

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a device or an app, then you want RGB.

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Video is RGB.

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Presentations such as
PowerPoint or KeyNote graphics,

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those should be RGB documents.

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If you're creating
something for a kiosk or

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any other screen, you want RGB,
and then here's the ringer.

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If you're doing personal
printing, that is,

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you're printing to a device at your home

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or office, and it's an inkjet device,

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then you should definitely go with RGB

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and I know that sounds
crazy, but here's the thing:

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inkjet printers have more than CMY and K.

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They tend to have as many as eight inks,

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and as a result, they
can print way more colors

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than you can get with conventional CMYK,

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and they're actually
expecting RGB documents,

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and they'll do a much better
job of printing RGB documents

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and matching the colors
than they will with CMYK.

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The function of CMYK, by
contrast, is very limited.

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You want to use CMYK when you're

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creating a document for pre-press.

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That is, to say, you're
going to ultimately

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be taking the document to
a professional print house

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for commercial reproduction
so if you're creating a

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conventional book or a magazine,
then CMYK is the way to go.

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That's really it, by the way.

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The only other time
you'd use CMYK is because

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you're doing personal
printing to a toner-based CMYK

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laser printer so in other words,
your laser printer only has

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cyan, magenta, yellow and
black toner, and in that case,

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then CMYK is going to
give you a better sense

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for how your document
will look, but even then,

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you may want to use RGB
instead because the printer

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driver is going to make the
conversion to CMYK for you,

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but your colors are going to diminish.

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So take a look at this rainbow

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over here on the right hand side.

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Currently, we're working
inside of a RGB document

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and you can see up here in the title tab.

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There it is right there, RGB.

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But notice if I go up to the file menu,

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choose document color, and
convert this document to CMYK,

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which you can do anytime you like,

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watch what happens to
this rainbow right there.

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It diminishes like crazy. We
just lose all kinds of colors.

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Also notice what happened, I'll go ahead

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and press CTRL + Z or CMD +Z
on a Mac to undo that change,

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Notice what happens to
the RGB green and magenta.

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They end up looking like this, and so CMYK

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is fairly notorious for
dropping out bright greens,

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bright blues and bright purples.

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You really lose them like
crazy so, in other words,

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unless you absolutely
have to work in CMYK,

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then you should be working with RGB.

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And that's how the the
two color modes work,

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RGB and CMYK, here inside Illustrator.