How to Use CMYK Gold Color

You don't need to buy expensive jewelry to enjoy the luxury of gold. Make your graphic design projects shine too by adding a touch of class and sophistication with gold highlights. In this tutorial, you will learn how to How to Use CMYK Gold Color.

We all know that color plays a very important role in graphic design, because each color has a meaning and conveys different feelings. If you have seen any Design Project and have thought about why the designer chose those colors, we will explain it to you.

They chose the primary color by researching what feeling they want to convey with their design, but they need to choose more colors to work with their design, and those colors are chosen using the color wheel theory.

Not all colors work well together and it is important to understand how colors interact with each other.

What Are CMYK And RGB Color Models?

Colors have two different natures:

• Additive colors, which are colors produced by light.
• Subtractive colors, which are tangible.

That's why you've heard about RGB y CMYK, now we are going to explain these two color models.

RGB color model

The RGB color model stands for red, green and blue and is mainly used for electronic displays, including computers and smartphones, and is based on the additive color model of light waves.

RGB It is created using scales from 0 to 255 in three colors R, G and B where 0 in all of them is the lack of light and that means the black color and where 255 is the full light and is the white color.

CMYK color model

The CMYK color model stands for Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Black, and it is the subtractive color model. That means you get the colors by subtracting the light and it is used in printing. That is why these colors are listed on your printer ink cartridge.

CMYK It works on a scale of 0 to 100 on all the colors mentioned above, where all are at 0, meaning you have not subtracted any light and you get the color white, and when all the colors are at 100, that means you have subtracted all the light and you get the color black.

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What's so special about the color gold?

The golden color reflects light. Of course, this property is difficult to reproduce 100% on paper. For this purpose, programs such as Adobe InDesign provide powerful gradient tools that effectively emulate a metallic gold effect.

The choice of paper also influences the impact of the gilding effect.

Meaning of the color yellow

We start with yellow, as it is the primary color most similar to the gold color, even being part of the base for its creation.

Yellow conveys hope and optimism and is perfect for drawing a customer's attention with its brightness. Yellow also stimulates creativity and energy.

Yellow is used to convey positivity, light, warmth, creativity and motivation.

Meaning of the color gold

The color gold, like black, symbolizes prestige and luxury and that is why many luxury brands use gold for their brand identity. Gold is generally associated with royalty and refinement.

The color gold communicates elegance, opulence, quality, elitism and idealism.

How to Use Classic CMYK Gold Color with Adobe InDesign

In this example, we will create a golden effect with Adobe InDesign which consists of four different brown and ochre shades. Before we can define the actual gradient, we first need to create each color separately.

• To do this, open the “Color theme".
• Then click on the button “New sample".
• Then double-click the newly created color to open the “Sample options".
• In this window, assign the name and values ​​for the first color.
• In this example, we name the four colors from «Gold 1" to "Gold 4» with the following values:
  • Gold 1: C9 M22 Y65 K2
  • Gold 2: C0 M0 Y21 K20
  • Gold 3: C21 M39 Y81 K17
  • Gold 4: C1 M2 Y35 K0
• Once you have created the four colors, open the “color themes".
• Click on the icon with three horizontal lines to open the drop-down menu.
• Then click on "New gradient sample".
• In the new window, first assign the name as you would a standard color. In this example, the name is “Golden gradient 1«.
• Choose "Linear” in the field “Use cases".
• The area to set the color is still grayed out and cannot be edited. This changes once you click on one of the color stops on the gradient ramp at the bottom of the window.

You can move the color stops to any position along the gradient ramp. Additionally, you can add more color stops by clicking below the Gradient Ramp.

To remove a color stop, simply left click and drag it out of the ramp area. The gradient ramp determines the gradient from the top to the bottom edge of an object to be colored.

• Click on one of the color stops to select it and assign colors.
• If you click on the first color stop, the drop-down menu “Stop color” to assign a color.
• Use the drop-down menu “Stop color” to select the panel “Color samples".
• Now you can assign each color individually. Add three more color stops and assign them the corresponding colors “Gold 1” to “Gold 4”.
• The last color stop is again assigned to “Gold 1”.
• Click on "Accept” to confirm the settings and the gradient will appear in Color Themes as a normal color.
• Now select the text or object and color it with the color «Golden gradient 1«.
• Depending on the version of InDesign, it may happen that the effect is initially displayed “from left to right” instead of “from top to bottom”.
• To get the desired result, open the “Gradient” panel by clicking Window > Color > Gradient. In this window, you can now set the angle of the gradient.

A golden plastic effect in CMYK

An outline makes the gold effect even more plastic. By defining “Gold Gradient 1” as an outline color in addition to the fill color, the gradient appears as a border and emulates the special reflection effect of gold.

You can change the angle to adjust the intensity of the golden plastic effect.

A subtle golden effect in CMYK

If you prefer a more subtle effect, we recommend a third gold color to add a less obvious but elegant touch to your design. First, we need two new color swatches. They have the following values:

• Gold 5: C7 M21 Y56 K0
• Gold 6: C18 M34 Y80 K0

Create another color gradient using the “color themes”. Assigns «Gold 5» to the left color stop and «Gold 6» to the right color stop. Change the field “Use cases"Of"Linear" to "Radial” to make the golden effect lighter from the outside to the inside.

Name the new gradient “Golden gradient 2”And click on“Accept” to confirm your settings. As in the previous example, simply select the object and fill it with the color “Golden gradient 2”. The result is much more subtle but still very elegant.

The Right Role

The choice of paper depends primarily on the purpose for which you want to use your gold effect design. For advertising a product, we recommend glossy coated fine art printing paper. The reflective properties under light enhance the gold effect and give the product a sophisticated look.

Matte coated or uncoated paper should be preferred if you want to emphasize the gold effect. There is no reflection that makes the gold effect stand out clearly. This works best on matte paper with a dark background.

To close

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We hope you find this post useful and learn how to use CMYK golden color, based on the concepts of color theory in graphic design.

Remember that colors are representations that we can use to convey emotions, and we must make the most of them in our designs.

We have selected Adobe InDesign as our example for creating the golden color, as it is considered the most widely used program when developing graphic design projects.