Color - Electronic and Web applications

There is a significant difference between how colors are created for and appear in digital formats versus in print. On printed documents, cyan, magenta, yellow and black inks are combined in specific percentages to create the desired colors. However, computer displays, television screens and projectors use a different method: by shining red, green and blue light, an electronic display can reproduce any visible color.

These two methods describe colors in very different ways, and using an image of the wrong type can lead to unpredictable or illegible results. So using, for example, the standard PMS 281 blue or the CMYK combination will look different in a digital format than in print.

Logo files defined for print, PowerPoint or Web displays are available in the Toolbox. For assistance, contact Phil Thompson, online content coordinator, at thompsps@whitman.edu.