CMYK to RGB Converter
Take the ink percentages from a print file and get RGB values you can use on screen - in a mockup, a presentation or on a website.
Example conversion
cmyk(0%, 91%, 73%, 14%)
converts to
rgb(220, 20, 60)
About CMYK to RGB conversion
This is the conversion you need when print came first. A brand book specifies its colors in ink percentages, a printed catalogue has to become a web shop, or a client sends the CMYK breakdown from their old stationery and asks for a matching website. CMYK describes how much cyan, magenta, yellow and black ink lands on white paper; RGB describes how much red, green and blue light a screen emits. Converting turns the ink recipe into the light recipe that renders the same color digitally.
This direction is the easier one. Every CMYK combination has an RGB equivalent, because the range of colors a screen can display is wider than what four process inks can reach. Nothing gets clipped on the way in, so the result is a faithful digital stand-in for your printed color - subject to the usual caveat that a backlit screen and a sheet of paper never look identical side by side.
When should you use CMYK to RGB?
- Taking a print brand online - turning the CMYK values in a brand manual into colors for a website, app or slide template.
- Building digital mockups - previewing packaging or print layouts on screen before anything is produced.
- Reusing print assets digitally - a catalogue, brochure or poster being repurposed for social media or email.
- Reading a legacy spec - older brand documents often list only CMYK and Pantone, with no hex code anywhere.
How the conversion works
The formula reverses the subtractive model. Each ink percentage becomes a fraction of light removed, and the black channel scales all three at once:
R = 255 x (1 - C) x (1 - K)G = 255 x (1 - M) x (1 - K)B = 255 x (1 - Y) x (1 - K)
So 0% of everything leaves all three channels at 255 - white paper, no ink - while 100% K drives them all to 0. The arithmetic is exact and straightforward. What it cannot know is which press, paper and ink set your original CMYK numbers were written for, so treat the result as an excellent digital equivalent rather than a laboratory match.
CMYK vs RGB
- What they measure - CMYK is ink coverage on paper, from 0% to 100%. RGB is light intensity per channel, from 0 to 255.
- Starting point - CMYK starts with white paper and darkens it. RGB starts with a black screen and lights it up.
- Gamut - RGB is the larger space here, so converting from CMYK never has to discard a color.
- Round trips - CMYK to RGB and back is generally stable, because you begin inside the smaller gamut. Starting from RGB is where colors get clipped.
- Everyday use - designers hand CMYK to printers and RGB (usually as hex) to developers.
Named CSS colors in CMYK and RGB
The sixteen basic CSS color keywords plus eight more that come up constantly, each shown in both models side by side. Pick any row to drop that color into the converter and read it in the other eight models too.
Frequently asked questions
Will the RGB result look exactly like my printed color?
Close, but a printed sheet and a glowing screen are never identical. Paper reflects ambient light while a monitor emits its own, and every display is calibrated differently. The conversion gives you the correct digital equivalent; for a side-by-side match you need a calibrated monitor and the printer's ICC profile.
I have a CMYK value but I need a hex code. What now?
Use the CMYK to HEX converter - it does the same conversion and hands you the six-digit code directly. You can also read the hex value off the "this color in every model" panel underneath this converter.
Why is my 100% cyan not the bright blue I expected?
100% cyan converts to rgb(0, 255, 255), a vivid on-screen cyan. Printed cyan ink is noticeably more muted than that, which is a good illustration of the gamut difference: the mathematical conversion is correct, but real ink cannot reach the brightness the screen shows.
Does CMYK to RGB lose any color information?
No. RGB can represent everything four-color process printing can produce, so nothing is clipped in this direction. The reverse - RGB to CMYK - is where colors outside the ink gamut get pulled to the nearest printable match.
What about Pantone or spot colors?
Pantone colors are proprietary premixed inks, not a mathematical color space, so they cannot be converted by formula. Look up the official CMYK or RGB breakdown Pantone publishes for the specific ink, then convert that.