Color picker values, what do they mean?

[ex-dvdsp]

This may be a question never asked. I have a color that I have created using the color picker that I want to create a fabric dye. RIT makes fabric dyes of only a few colors. Yes, they have a color studio that shows over 500 color formulas using their available colors.

None of them come close to what I want.

I notice that there are vales that are shown in the color picker dialog, however, they do not make sense to me.

My color choice has the following values:

C:4%

M:28%

Y:28%

k:0%

First, shouldn't these values add up to 100%  ??

Second, are these the "Printer" colors, Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Black?

Is the RGB values Red, Green , Blue?

They are 240, 192 and 172 (respectively) 

I am thinking that the RGB values mean some sort of color ratio. Do I reduce 240, 192 and 172 to the least common denominator and use RIT's basic Red, Blue and Green dyes to make my color??

In other words, would 240 ml of red, 192 ml of green and 172 ml of blue dyes mixed together create the color as seen in the color picker?

Thanks for your help

[gener7 · Accepted solution]

Perhaps you should link us to the RIT values you are speaking about.

CMYK stands for Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, and Black (K) plates used in color offset printing.

The percentages are for each plate 0-100 %

RGB is for color monitors  Red 0-255, Green, 0-255 and Blue 0-255.

Dyes probably use a different scheme.

[Bojan Živković]

You are correct, C, M, Y and K stands for Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Black. Those are percentages of CMYK colors which are measured from 0 to 100% while RGB values are represented with numbers 0 to 255.

Numbers for RGB values are creating color inside circle or inside square in the middle in your screenshot and those numbers translated to CMYK colors are represented on the right side: C: 4%, M: 28%, Y: 28% and K: 0%.

[davescm]

Hi

The numbers represent the individual colour levels RGB or CMYK being used to produce the image colour. However those numbers only apply in the specific Color Space being used. Change the colour space and the same numbers will produce a different colour (or the same colour will require different numbers).

Does the RIT system give you formulas for matching to PANTONE color libraries? If so, you could click on libraries in the colour picker and use the appropriate PANTONE colour in your image then mix it with the RIT dyes.

Dave