A screen makes color by giving off light. Ink makes color by reflecting the light that falls on it. The two work in opposite ways, so a color can look right on your laptop and a little different in your hand. The brightest colors shift the most.

What causes the difference

Your screen is backlit. A bright, saturated green on screen glows. The same green on vinyl reflects the light in the room, and reflected color is never as intense as glowing color. Neons and electric blues show this most.

Every screen is set differently. Brightness, color temperature, and night mode all change what you see, and so does whether it's a phone or a calibrated monitor. Your design already looks like several different colors, depending on who is looking at it.

The material underneath changes the color. Ink on white vinyl looks one way. The same ink on Clear, Holographic, Glitter, or Chrome looks another, because what is behind it is part of what you see.

What we do about it

We print our stickers and sheet labels on an 11-ink extended-gamut press. Many printers use four inks (cyan, magenta, yellow, and black), and four inks can't reach many of the colors a screen can show. The extra inks widen the range, so the oranges, greens, and blues that often disappoint land much closer to what you designed.

We also leave your color mode alone. If you send an RGB file, we keep it in RGB, and if you send CMYK, we keep it in CMYK. Converting everything to CMYK is where vivid colors go dull, before anybody has seen a proof, so we don't do it.

Roll labels are the exception. They print in four-color CMYK, so an RGB file is converted for them, and their brightest colors come out a little calmer. Should I send RGB or CMYK? explains more.

What you can do about it

Look at your proof on more than one screen if the color is critical. If it looks the same on your phone and your laptop, it is probably a fair picture.
Expect the biggest shift in the brightest colors. A deep navy will match closely. A fluorescent green will not, because on screen it glows, and printed ink can only reflect light. Can you print neon or fluorescent colors? explains why.
Remember the material. On clear vinyl, pale colors are see-through and dark ones are not. On holographic, everything is affected by the pattern beneath. Your proof shows the sticker on the material you chose, not on plain white.
Tell us before you order if the exact color matters. A specific brand color is worth discussing before the run, not after. Can you match a Pantone or brand color? covers what to send.

Don't adjust your artwork to compensate

Don't change your colors to make up for what you think the press will do. Pushing a color further, hoping it will land right, doesn't work. It just sends us a different color, and we print that color faithfully.