What is HEX to CMYK color conversion?
Simple put: HEX colors are good for displays, but you need the corresponding CMYK color value for printing (p.e. for Adobe InDesign). The color systems of HEX (Hexadecimal) and CMYK (Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Black) are very different from each other. For instance, the HEX colors space contains more possible colors than the CMYK color space. This means that not every color looks the same on displays as they look if you print it out. If you need a lot of vibrant colors in your design and then convert them to cmyk, it often looks a lot less vibrant. This cannot be avoided, because like mentioned before, HEX can display a lot more colors than CMYK. If you want to print a vibrant color like red, blue or green for your design, especially if you want to print logos, consider using the PANTONE System, which supports a whole lot more colors than CMYK does. Most good Printing services can handle PANTONE colors. They really look amazing and are standardized worldwide.
Why convert Hex to CMYK?
We often start designing on a screen, and later have to convert the colors to cmyk for print. This easy color converter Tool helps you in this step and even allows you to save your colors and have an instant overview over their RGB, CMYK and HSL Values in an instant. We love colors, and we love converting colors for you. Our tools allows you to convert hex to cmyk in one simple step. As soon as you entered your hex value, hit the convert button right beneath the input field. You will then directly be presented the solution. As a bonus there also are the conversion results for RGB and HSL. If you have an idea or feedback for our converter, we would love to hear it. Thank you.
What can I do if i don't find a good CMYK color match for my HEX color?
As mentioned before, the CMYK color system does not contain as many colors as the HEX color system does. Sometimes, if you convert a color to CYMK, you will not be happy with the result. Example: Let's take a vibrant violet color like #7600DE. If you convert it to CMYK and print the result on your printer, you may notice that the result is much less vibrant and may not fit your needs or even not fit the intended corporate identity. In this case you have two choices: Either you search for another CMYK color which looks more similar to your HEX color, even if the technical conversion would not lead to this choice (often it is useful to reduce of fully remove the black form your cmyk). The better way is to avoid the CMYK hassle by searching for the corresponding PANTONE color. PANTONE colors are predefinded colors which are not mixed while they are printed on paper and thus can lead to a more vibrant look. Although the PANTONE color system has fewer colors than CMYK, the single colors are able to go way beyond the CMYK color space and thus lead to a much better result.
Limitations about Hex to CMYK conversion
One important thing to point out is the fact that the Hexacedicmal color range is greater than de CMYK color range. This means that conversion from Hex to CMYK is not "lossless" because CMYK can only hold a subset of all the available Hex colors. There are some colors where you do not see any real difference, but you will see that converting some shades of Hex turquoise to CMYK will result in a much dirtier color than it should. This is a technical limitation, there is nothing you can do about this, there are just some workarounds (PANTONE or similar colors).
Pro Tip: in some cases, if the conversion result does not meet your expectations, it can be helpful to choose another color in the CMYK color space, even if it is not the technically correct converted color. Sometimes this results in a color that is visually nearer than the conversion result.
To read more about the Hex color space, klick here (Wikipedia).
To read more about the CMYK color space, klick here (Wikipedia).
