What CMYK values does an HSV color produce?
Using the standard uncalibrated conversion, black ink is 100 minus the HSV value, the strongest colored ink equals the saturation, and hue decides how the remaining ink is split. hsv(210, 88, 100) becomes cmyk(88%, 44%, 0%, 0%). This tool converts HSV to RGB and then to CMYK in one go, rounding only at the end.
The usual reason for this route: you picked a color from a hue wheel or HSB sliders (in a design app, a paint program or a generative script) and now need ink percentages for a print brief.
Three rules that hold for every result
Chaining the HSV-to-RGB and RGB-to-CMYK formulas cancels out neatly. For any color with V above 0:
| Rule | Example: hsv(210, 88, 70) |
|---|---|
| K = 100 − V | 100 − 70 = 30% black |
| Largest of C, M, Y = S | cyan = 88% |
| Smallest of C, M, Y = 0 | yellow = 0% |
The result here is cmyk(88%, 44%, 0%, 30%). Change V to 40 and only K moves, to 60%. That makes HSV a convenient way to think about print darkness: brightness maps straight onto black ink.
Why it works: V is the brightest RGB channel, and the RGB-to-CMYK formula from the W3C's CSS Color Module Level 5 draft sets K from exactly that channel. Each colored ink then equals 1 minus that channel's share of the brightest, and the dimmest channel's share is 1 − S.
The middle ink follows the hue
With S and V both at 100, you can see how hue picks which inks appear:
| Hue | CMYK | Inks used |
|---|---|---|
| 0° | 0, 100, 100, 0 | magenta + yellow (red) |
| 30° | 0, 50, 100, 0 | yellow, half magenta |
| 60° | 0, 0, 100, 0 | yellow only |
| 90° | 50, 0, 100, 0 | yellow, half cyan |
| 120° | 100, 0, 100, 0 | cyan + yellow (green) |
| 180° | 100, 0, 0, 0 | cyan only |
| 200° | 100, 33.3, 0, 0 | cyan, a third magenta |
| 240° | 100, 100, 0, 0 | cyan + magenta (blue) |
| 300° | 0, 100, 0, 0 | magenta only |
Every 60° the formula hits a single process ink or a two-ink overprint. In between, the middle ink ramps linearly.
Worked example: a warm cream
Suppose you picked a soft cream in a color wheel, hsv(45, 20, 95).
- K = 100 − 95 = 5%.
- The strongest ink equals S: 20%. At 45°, between red and yellow, that's yellow.
- Cyan is the weakest ink: 0%.
- Magenta is the middle ink, which the tool computes as 5%.
Output: cmyk(0%, 5%, 20%, 5%). Light tints like this tend to translate well to process inks because they're far from the saturated colors that inks struggle to reach.
Precision
The HSV-to-RGB step isn't rounded before the CMYK step, so results can differ slightly from going through a HEX code. hsv(270, 66.7, 60) gives 33.4% cyan here, while the HEX version of that color, #663399, converts to 33.3% because its channels were already rounded to whole numbers. Output is rounded to one decimal place.
Before the file goes to print
These numbers describe ideal inks on ideal paper. Real separations are made through an ICC profile describing the press and stock; the International Color Consortium maintains that format, and characterization data such as FOGRA39 underpins common offset profiles. A profile conversion may add colored ink under the black or limit very dark totals, which this formula never does. Use the result to brief a designer or printer, then confirm with a proof.
Input rules
Enter H, S and V as three numbers: hsv(210, 88, 100), 210 88 100 and 210°, 88%, 100% all work. Hue runs 0–360 (360 equals 0), saturation and value 0–100, and decimals are accepted. Saturation and value given as 0–1 fractions, such as 210, 0.88, 1, get a hint asking for percentages instead of a near-black result, so scale them by 100 first (a hue in 0–1 form needs multiplying by 360, which the tool can't detect). Invalid input shows "Enter valid HSV values (H 0-360, S/V 0-100)". The conversion runs in your browser.
To check a CMYK spec back in HSV terms, use CMYK to HSV. For a web color from the same HSV numbers, HSV to HEX or HSV to RGB does the job. If the print job calls for a spot color, CMYK to Pantone suggests the nearest match from its table.
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