You choose a picture on your phone. It glows. The pinks are electric and the blues are deep. The print arrives, and it is the same picture, but it looks a little quieter. Nothing has gone wrong. A screen and a print make colour in different ways, and they can never match exactly. This post explains why, and what to expect.
A screen makes light. A print reflects it.
This is the main reason.
A screen is a light source. Each pixel shines. The colours you see are made of light coming straight at your eyes, and the screen can be as bright as its backlight allows.
A print has no light of its own. You see it because light from a lamp or a window falls on it and bounces back. Ink works by absorbing some of that light and reflecting the rest. A print can never be brighter than the light that falls on it, and it is always less bright than a screen.
So a print looks a little darker and a little less vivid than the same image on a display. It is the difference between a stained glass window with the sun behind it and a painting of that window.
RGB and CMYK
Screens build colour from three lights: red, green and blue, or RGB. With all three off, you get black. With all three on full, you get white. Adding light makes the picture brighter, so this is called additive colour.
Printers build colour from inks: cyan, magenta, yellow and black, or CMYK. Fine art printers add extra inks, such as light cyan and light magenta. Paper starts white, and each ink takes some light away. This is called subtractive colour.
The two systems cover different ranges of colour. The range a device can produce is called its gamut.
Some screen colours can't be printed
A screen can show colours that no ink can make. The hardest are:
- Neon and electric colours. Vivid cyan, hot magenta, lime green and bright orange, of the kind that seem to glow.
- Very saturated blues and purples. Deep electric blue often prints a little duller, or a touch more purple.
- Pure, bright RGB green.
When an image contains a colour outside the printer's range, the printer uses the nearest one it can make. The result is close, and a little less intense.
This matters for the kind of art we make. Neon, synthwave and cyberpunk pictures are built from the very colours that screens do best. In print they are rich and strong. They don't glow, because ink can't.
Your screen is not neutral
No two screens show the same picture the same way.
- Brightness. Most people keep their phone much brighter than any print could be.
- Screen type. OLED screens, used in many phones, have very deep blacks and strongly saturated colour. Many laptops are flatter.
- Vivid modes. Phones and televisions often boost colour by default.
- Night mode and warm filters. These turn the whole screen orange in the evening.
- Automatic adjustments. Some devices change colour to suit the room.
- Age and quality. Cheap and old screens drift.
Look at one image on your phone, your laptop and your television, and you will see three versions. A print can match, at most, one of them.
The material changes the colour
- Matte paper. Soft, with no shine. Blacks are a little lighter and colours a little gentler than on gloss. There are no reflections, which is why we use it. See matte vs glossy prints.
- Canvas. The weave gives a slight texture and softens fine detail a touch. Colour is rich.
- Fabric. On tapestries, desk mats and clothing, the ink is absorbed into the fibres. Colours are a little softer than on paper, and the texture of the cloth shows.
- The base colour. Paper and canvas are not all the same white. A warmer white gives a warmer print.
The same artwork will look a little different as a poster, a canvas and a tapestry. That is normal.
The light in your room changes it again
Because a print reflects light, the light it is in decides its colour.
- Warm bulbs (about 2700K) add yellow. Blues and purples look duller and whites look cream.
- Cool or daylight bulbs (5000K and up) keep blues clean and can make warm colours look flat.
- Daylight shows colour most truly, and it changes through the day.
- Dim light takes the colour out of everything, and dark prints suffer most.
- Coloured LED light changes every colour in the picture.
A print that looks dull on a dim wall may look right once a lamp is pointed at it. Try that before you decide you are disappointed. See how to light wall art with LED strips.
What to expect from a print
- The same picture, the same composition, the same colours in the same places.
- A little less brightness and saturation than on a phone.
- Slightly softer blacks on matte paper.
- Small differences between one product type and another.
- Small differences between one print run and the next. Each item is made individually.
How to judge more accurately before you buy
- Turn your screen brightness down to about half.
- Turn off night mode and any vivid setting.
- Look at the image on a second device.
- Look at the product photos, which show the piece as an object.
- Think about your room's light. Warm bulbs will warm the print.
- If an exact shade matters, to match a paint colour for instance, order a small, low-cost item in the design first and look at it in the room.
What counts as a fault
A modest difference from your screen is normal, for all the reasons above, and it isn't a defect. A fault is something else:
- lines, bands or streaks across the print
- a strong overall cast, such as a picture that is green all over when it should not be
- patches of missing or wrong colour
- the wrong design
If you see any of those, contact us within 30 days with photographs, and we will put it right. See the inspection checklist and our refund policy.
A print has its own qualities
A print is less bright than a screen. It is also steadier and easier to look at. It doesn't flicker, glare or tire the eyes, and it looks right in the evening with the lamps on. It has a surface and a texture, and it shows the picture at its full size. A neon street scene in matte ink on canvas is a different thing from the same scene on a phone, and many people come to prefer it.
For more on how prints are made, see what is a giclée print and how a Kiyo Arts piece is made.