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natural_contributors5C08
Participant
September 9, 2025
Answered

How to get the right Colour in Illustrator

  • September 9, 2025
  • 3 replies
  • 214 views

So I am helping someone with her design work which she did in RGB on Canva initially. Now we need to participate in the conference and we need to submit final files for Stand wall Panels in Illustrator to be printed which will be in CMYK format and 1 Panel will have to be in RGB format to be displayed on the stand desk. I tried to find the same vivid purple 7e57ff which we have on our Logo, Text in Canva but when I put it on Illustrator its very dimmed and very different version of purple. What can I do to get very vivid /bright purple in Illustrator as in Canva? See the photos of what we get in the attached.

 

Thanks! 

Correct answer Bobby Henderson

RGB 7e57ff purple is way outside the gamut limits of CMYK. Even a six color large format printer wouldn't be able to hit a purple like that. In the color picker the 7e57ff color is pushed to the top of the color picker square (notice the gamut warning exclamation point in the attached color picker image).

 

There are plenty of reasons why I really do not like Canva. One of the biggest reasons is the app deliberately promotes itself to people who don't have any training/experience in graphics production and the software pretends that any professional knowledge is not necessary. People jump into the free version of the app and it's, "hold my beer, I'm going to be a graphic designer."

 

One of the basic rules in graphics production is the design needs to be created with the output device in mind. If the design is something that will be printed it needs to have colors that will fit within the gamut range of the printer. All too often people will just pick colors that look the most vibrant on a computer screen. That often means RGB colors that are maxed out in brightness and saturation.

 

When our shop runs into a problem like this we'll sometimes have customers pick a spot color out of a physical Pantone swatch book and then print a test sample to see how well the printer can match it. RGB colors can go well beyond the intensity levels of Pantone spot colors.

3 replies

B
Community Expert
Bobby HendersonCommunity ExpertCorrect answer
Community Expert
September 10, 2025

RGB 7e57ff purple is way outside the gamut limits of CMYK. Even a six color large format printer wouldn't be able to hit a purple like that. In the color picker the 7e57ff color is pushed to the top of the color picker square (notice the gamut warning exclamation point in the attached color picker image).

 

There are plenty of reasons why I really do not like Canva. One of the biggest reasons is the app deliberately promotes itself to people who don't have any training/experience in graphics production and the software pretends that any professional knowledge is not necessary. People jump into the free version of the app and it's, "hold my beer, I'm going to be a graphic designer."

 

One of the basic rules in graphics production is the design needs to be created with the output device in mind. If the design is something that will be printed it needs to have colors that will fit within the gamut range of the printer. All too often people will just pick colors that look the most vibrant on a computer screen. That often means RGB colors that are maxed out in brightness and saturation.

 

When our shop runs into a problem like this we'll sometimes have customers pick a spot color out of a physical Pantone swatch book and then print a test sample to see how well the printer can match it. RGB colors can go well beyond the intensity levels of Pantone spot colors.

    N
    natural_contributors5C08Author
    Participant
    September 13, 2025

    thank you!... that all makes sense ... and totally agree on Canva. The lady I am helping out , she created her own logo design and colours on canva, says she hates Illustrator as it's "ugly" ))) well, i just have to go and do what's required in the end which is .ai formatted final files, so whether she likes it or not, we have to change the colour now to the printed assets to what we can find closest to that rgb colour ...

    Tina_Irvine
    Community Expert
    Tina_IrvineCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    September 10, 2025

    Unfortunately, you won't get the same result. RGB is additive / light-based, and used in devices such as monitors. CMYK is generally best for print. You'll have to play around with colour adjustments to try to make it as close as possible. An option could be to try a specialty ink book, such as Pantone's, and try to find the best colour match possible there. Whether or not your printer can handle specialty inks, would be the next question, but you still may be able to find a decent CMYK match rather than using guesswork.

     

    If your wall panels are backlit, that may help you out with the end result.

      Monika Gause
      Community Expert
      Monika GauseCommunity Expert
      Community Expert
      September 9, 2025

      For large format printing you can often send RGB files, which will give you a slightly better result than when you do a conversion in Illustrator. But still you will probably not be able to get that color. Talk to the printer.

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