Why does my vivid blue print as purple?

The color sits outside CMYK's gamut — print inks cannot reach that saturation at that hue — so conversion pulls it inward, and blues characteristically drift violet. The verdict panel shows the shift before the press does.

What is the difference between sRGB and P3 here?

P3 displays render a wider gamut, so a color outside sRGB but inside P3 looks richer on modern screens and ordinary on older ones. Specifying in sRGB guarantees consistency; using the wider gamut trades it for vibrance.

Is the CMYK preview exact?

It is an approximation — real conversions depend on profile, substrate and press. The preview's job is showing whether a shift exists and its rough size, not issuing the final proof.

How do I keep brand colors consistent across media?

Specify print-safe variants for ink, screen values for display, and treat the Pantone bridge as the cross-media contract — checked here before committing.

Color Gamut Visualizer

Color

#3B82F6

Gamut

sRGB

In gamut

CMYK approx

C76 M47 Y0 K4

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The color gamut visualizer shows where a color sits relative to the gamuts that display it — sRGB, P3 and beyond — and flags what survives the journey to print.

What is Color Gamut Visualizer?

A color is not a color until a device renders it, and devices disagree: the sRGB web standard draws one boundary around what ordinary monitors show, Display-P3 widens it for modern screens, and CMYK print shrinks it drastically.
The color gamut visualizer places any color in that landscape — showing its sRGB standing, an approximate CMYK rendering of what print would make of it, and the verdict on whether the color survives the journey.
It is a srgb vs p3 gamut check in tool form, for the moment a vivid screen color meets a medium that cannot keep up.

The common failure the tool explains is the vivid-blue-to-purple print disaster. Screen blues at high saturation sit outside CMYK's reach; the print conversion pulls them toward violet, and the brand's blue arrives on paper wrong. The out of gamut color tool verdict makes the risk visible before the press does: colors inside the gamut render as themselves; colors outside get their approximate printed appearance, and the distance between the two swatches is the size of the surprise. The same logic extends toward the wide-gamut future — P3-capable displays show more than sRGB, so colors specified carelessly look different across the monitor fleet.

The practical deployments: pre-print checks on brand colors, deciding which accents survive a print collateral run, and understanding why the screen-approved design looks muted in the catalog. The converters supply the CMYK numbers when the print path is chosen; the gamut checker shares this tool's verdict machinery for a lighter-weight question; and the display-side lesson — specify in spaces, not devices — is the one the OKLCH tools reinforce from the other direction.

Gamut is the reason a beautiful screen colour can become a disappointing print, and it deserves better than a footnote in the brief. The useful framing is coverage per hue rather than one overall percentage: a colour can be perfectly printable in its lightness while sitting outside the range of saturation the ink can reach, and it is exactly those values — vivid purples, bright greens, saturated cyans — that cause the surprise. Seeing where a value sits relative to the printable region turns an abstract risk into a specific decision: shift this hue slightly, accept a duller version here, or plan to specify that element as a spot ink instead. Modern displays complicate the picture further, since a palette that exceeds the sRGB reference is now common, and a print check has to account for the fact that the screen itself may be showing something no ink can match.

Checking the palette rather than the individual colour is the habit that pays, since a gamut problem is usually a pattern across a family rather than one unlucky value.

As a gamut coverage checker it is deliberately the boundary tool: where does this color live, what survives, what does print make of it. For designs that will meet ink, it is the check that prevents the purple surprise. Where a brand colour fails the check, the useful question is not whether to accept a compromise but where in the interface that difference will genuinely be noticed.

How to use Color Gamut Visualizer

Set the color you plan to use across media.
Read the sRGB verdict and the approximate CMYK rendering side-by-side.
If print matters and the shift is visible, choose a print-safe variant or plan a spot color.

When to use Color Gamut Visualizer vs related tools

Use this before committing vivid colors to print, or when displays disagree about a brand color. Use the converters for the CMYK numbers, the temperature analyzer for warmth questions, and the approximation tool when the conversation runs toward Pantone. For the neighbouring steps, see the color wheel theory guide and the bezold effect visualizer.

Privacy & Security

This tool runs entirely in your browser — no data ever leaves your device. There is no server round-trip, no upload, no logging, and no account required. Your input is processed locally using client-side JavaScript and is never stored, transmitted, or accessible to anyone else. When you close the tab, everything disappears.