The brochures arrive and the brand red looks brown, or the bright blue has gone flat. Nobody made a mistake at the press. The file asked paper to do something it cannot do: a screen makes colour with light, paper makes it with ink, and the brightest screen colours have no ink equivalent at all. The gap never closes completely. It can stop surprising you.

The short answer

Screens mix red, green and blue light; printing mixes four inks (cyan, magenta, yellow and black) on paper. Ink can reproduce fewer colours than light, and the paper changes the result again. Design in CMYK for the paper you will print on, approve a physical proof, and keep exact brand colours for spot inks where they matter.

Key takeaways

  • Bright screen colours often fall outside what ink can print, so they come out duller on paper.
  • Coated and uncoated paper are different printing conditions, with separate colour standards for each.
  • Approve colour on paper, not on a phone: every screen shows colour differently.
  • A full-size dummy catches colour and layout problems while they still cost nothing.

Light and ink are not the same thing

A screen adds light: red, green and blue at full strength make white. Print subtracts light: cyan, magenta, yellow and black inks absorb part of the light that hits white paper, and what bounces back is the colour you see. Ink covers a smaller range than a screen. Electric blues, neon greens and saturated oranges suffer first.

Paper matters as much as ink. Colour standards treat each paper type as its own printing condition. The International Color Consortium's registry lists FOGRA51 for offset printing to ISO 12647-2:2013 on premium coated 115 g/m² paper, and FOGRA52 for the same standard on wood-free uncoated 120 g/m² paper. Same standard, different paper, different colour data, because uncoated paper absorbs more ink and prints softer.

Five mistakes that widen the gap

Colour mistakes and their fixes
MistakeWhat happensThe fix
Sending an RGB fileColours are converted at the press and shift without warningConvert to CMYK yourself, for the paper you will use, and check it before sending
Approving colour on a phonePhone screens are bright and vary from one to the nextApprove a printed proof, in daylight or good office light
Choosing the paper lastThe same file prints duller on uncoated stockDecide coated or uncoated before the design is finished
Building black from one inkLarge black areas look grey and washed outAsk your printer for their recommended rich black for big solid areas
Reusing a logo file from the webLow resolution and screen colours, blurred and off-brandUse the original vector logo with defined CMYK values

The costly mistake Signing off a 5,000-copy company profile from a PDF on a laptop, then seeing the brand colour on paper for the first time when the boxes arrive. A printed proof costs a fraction of a reprint. Pay for it.

How to get colour you can trust

  1. Define your brand colours for print. A brand needs its CMYK values written down, not only its screen colours. If your logo was only ever made for social media, our logo design service can prepare print-ready versions.
  2. Tell the designer the paper. Coated (gloss or silk) or uncoated (like letterhead) changes how the file should be prepared.
  3. Ask for a physical proof. Design and a proof are included with every order. Look at it in daylight next to the last thing you printed.
  4. For a big job, hold the real thing. A full-size dummy book lets you check colour, paper weight, binding and layout before the run, while mistakes still cost nothing.
  5. Use spot colour where exact colour matters. A spot ink is mixed to one exact shade, which is why it is used for logos that must match across print, signs and uniforms.

Expect consistency, not a perfect match The aim is that every printed piece matches every other printed piece. Our company profiles print on 150 or 170 gsm coated pages with a 300 gsm cover, from 100 copies at KSh 400; our business cards are 350 gsm as standard. Printed from the same CMYK values on similar coated stock, they sit together comfortably, even if none of them glows like your monitor.

Colour does real work in how customers read a brand, which we cover in the psychology of colour in business signage. How the press itself affects colour across a long run is part of offset vs digital printing.

Frequently Asked Questions

Screens glow with their own light and are often set very bright, while paper only reflects the light around it. Ink also cannot reach the brightest screen colours. Viewing the proof in good light and preparing the file in CMYK narrows the difference.
CMYK, prepared for the paper you will print on, so you see the colour shift before printing rather than after. If you are unsure, send the original files and ask us to prepare them.
Coated paper holds ink on its surface and prints brighter; uncoated paper absorbs more ink and prints softer. Colour standards treat them as different printing conditions for this reason.
Usually close, and a printed proof shows you exactly how close before the run. Where an exact match is essential, a spot colour mixed to one shade is the more reliable route.

Which of your colours will hold on paper, and which will shift? That question has an answer before anything is printed: share the logo files and the paper you have in mind.

Sources: International Color Consortium registry entries for FOGRA51 and FOGRA52 (both read 14 October 2026).