Professional designers know about color profiles. But if you are a hobbyist artist or don’t have any training, CMYK, RGB and other options might seem like gibberish. Procreate has standard color profiles as well as more specialized options. If you’ve wondered what all the letters mean when you make a new Procreate canvas, you’ll soon have answers as we’ve explained the differences and when to use which color profiles in Procreate.
What are Color Profiles?
If you’re an experienced graphic designer or digital illustrator, you may already know all about color profiles. But if you’re self-taught, a hobbyist, or brand new to digital art, you might be wondering what the acronyms are.
Color profiles vary depending on where you are in the world, but they are generally divided into two categories, Print and Screen.
Print color profiles consist of a spectrum of colors that is best used for printing artwork, packaging design or any other physical product. Print color profiles are commonly referred to as CMYK. It stands for Cyan (also known as Key) and Magenta (also called Yellow in the industry). If you’ve ever changed your inkjet printer’s cartridges, you’ve likely used these four colors for the ink. CMYK is all that printers need to reproduce other colors.
The RGB acronym is used to describe screen-based color profiles. This stands for Red Green Blue. These three colors are what make up any color you see on a screen—your computer, phone, tablet, and even televisions or digital billboards. RGB creates colors using light, which is the reason RGB is only used in screen-only design.
Procreate allows you to create color palettes in a variety of ways. Once you’ve got the right color profile, your colors will work harmoniously together.
What are Procreate’s color profile options?
Open Procreate to see all of the color profiles that are available. Photos The tap + Start a new canvas. To see the default profiles, tap the button. New Canvas Icon and then Color Profile. Here, you have two options: RGB and CMYK.
After you’ve set your color profile, add the colors that suit your art to Procreate. There are many different ways to color your artwork in Procreate, and it doesn’t matter which color profile you’re on. CMYK colors are less saturated when viewed on screen than RGB colors.
1. Create RGB Profiles
Depending on which Procreate version you’re running, and on which iOS, there are at least five profiles under Procreate’s RGB options: Display P3; sRGB IEC61966-2.1; sRGB v4 ICC Appearance; sRGB v4 ICC Preference; sRGB v4 ICC Preference Display Class.
Display P3 was created by Apple. Display P3 offers a larger color space of 25% than other sRGB profile, resulting in richer colors on your screen.
The other sRGB—Standard Red Green Blue—profiles offer similar color spectrums to one another. If you’re sharing your digital art with other computers or digital software, it’s best to calibrate the color profiles—so it’s the same no matter where you’re accessing your art.
2. Create CMYK profiles
Procreate has around 11 CMYK profiles. Similarly to the RGB profiles, you should calibrate your CMYK profile to the printer you plan to use; this is integral if you’re sending your artwork for commercial printing or international printers.
International printers often use different printing profiles, especially between North America, Europe, and Asia—Japan, more specifically. European printers most often use FOGRA, although there’s still at least three FOGRA choices.
If you plan to print your artwork in a commercial setting, it’s best to speak with the printer ahead of time to find out which color profiles will work best. If you’re printing at home, either calibrate your home printer or just use Generic CMYK Profile.
How to use different color profiles in Procreate
As you’ve learned throughout this article, if you’re printing your artwork, you should use CMYK. And if you’re keeping the artwork digital, it should be RGB.
Some software allow you to change your color profile in the middle of the creation process. Unfortunately, Procreate does not allow you to switch between RGB or CYMK profiles once the canvas is set up. This means If you create your art canvas in the wrong profile, you can’t change it back.
You can however change color profiles between the RGB sphere and CMYK sphere if necessary. This is helpful if you’re sending your artwork to print in different continents or find different screen profiles to display your work on.
It is better to draw or design in RGB if you are sure that your artwork will both be printed and displayed on screen. CMYK profiles are digitally replicated anyway, since it’s an app software and cannot be truly CMYK by design.
Adobe Illustrator is the best choice. While third-party programs can convert artwork from CMYK into RGB or vice versa and there are many of them, Adobe Illustrator is by far the most popular. Adobe Illustrator can be used to vectorize Procreate illustrations.
Always Use the Correct Colour Profiles
Unless you’re a trained illustrator or designer, you might not know the differences between color profiles in digital art software. Procreate offers over 15 color profiles, but now you’re a little more aware of what they each mean.
The generic profiles are perfect for most hobbyists who use Procreate. It’s best if you don’t make the mistakes of choosing a CMYK profile instead of an RGB one, but it’s an easy fix if you move outside the app.