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What is CMYK?

CYMK is an acronym that represents the printing inks used in four-color process printing. These are Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Black. As white light strikes translucent inks, a portion of the spectrum is absorbed. Color that is not absorbed is reflected back to your eye.

In theory, pure cyan, magenta, and yellow pigments should combine to absorb all color and produce black; for this reason they are also called subtractive colors. Because all printing inks contain some impurities, these three inks actually produce a muddy brown and must be combined with black ink to produce a true black. A mixture of practical cyan, magenta, and yellow pigments is not pure black, but a dark muddy color. This is because theoretically cyan, magenta and yellow mixed should create black, but do not because it is near impossible to create pure pigments to make it occur.

These colors can be combined and printed to emulate a wide number of other colors. If you look carefully (using a magnifying glass) at a printed color photograph in any magazine or book, you’ll see that it’s made up of rows of tiny dots called a halftone screen. The dots are placed at different angles and fool your eye into seeing a full spectrum of colors.Combining these inks to reproduce color is called four-color process printing.

For a graphics file to be printed in CMYK, it must be converted or created in that color mode. A different sheet of film (or Digital plate if Computer To Plate is employed (CTP)) is created for each color. For the computer to tell the machine that produces the film, what to put on each sheet of film, the computer image must be in CMYK format.

So, why do we refer to these four ink colors as CMYK and not CMYB? Well, its to avoid confusion – me I think the solution is confusing but that’s another matter. Quite simply, it’s so that no one will be confused into thinking that the last color is Blue rather than Black.

The other main color mode that you encounter is RGB and this modle is used in transmitted color rather than reflective, and also called addative colors.

What is 4-color process printing?

Do I only get 4 colors?

When the term “4 Color Process” is used, it means that the four primary printing colors are used. These colors are as follows:

Cyan (C) - a light blue color that lends coolness to the image
Magenta (M) - a medium red color that lends warmth to the image
Yellow (Y) - a bright yellow color that lends brightness to the image
BlacK (K) - a filler color that complements the image and gives it contrast.

In print, the 4-Color Process, also known as CMYK (See above for how the acronym is derived from the basic colors).

CMYK 4-color printing is capable of reproducing literally thousands of colors. This is the industry standard method of producing all color magazines, books, and other full color printed material. For example, to get a GREEN color from the four basic primary print colors, the industry utilizes CYAN and YELLOW that mix to give GREEN. The exact tint may require different percentages of each color to form the basic GREEN, and further enhanced by adding a small percentage of the other primary print colors.

Light arrives in literally millions of colors, but our brains are organized to deal with only a few primary colors. That’s all our optic hardware can deal with but our brain translates the optic information it receives into an entire rainbow of colors and hues.

Though the actual colors used are different, all printing, and in fact motion pictures and television, all depend on an analogous system of building a rainbow from only a few basic colors. All light mediums use the primary colors associated with light being Red, Green, Blue (Also known as RGB). The software used in the print industry also utilizes the RGB format of colors which are on a different spectrum then CMYK. As files created in the RGB format would not look exactly as it looks like in the preparation software when printed with the CMYK format, it is advisable to convert these images or file to CMYK before sending for print.

Computer monitors or television sets create full color images with light projection using three primary colors. Thousands of colors can be created from the three RGB primary colors (Red, Green and Blue). The process is additive. In other words, add 100% of all three colors together and you produce white. The absence of all three colors leaves black.

Printing presses create full color images with light reflection using a slightly different three primary colors (Cyan, Magenta and Yellow). A fourth color (blacK) is added to increase contrast and definition in photos and to create sharper text. The process is subtractive and is commonly referred to as CMYK printing. In theory, add 100% of all three colors (CMY) together and you produce black. The absence of any color leaves only the paper color which is generally white. In actual fact, the black produced by combining cyan, magenta and yellow is more like a dark muddy brown, which is why the fourth color, black, is added for better color rendition and to make it easier to print type, most of which is generally black.

We really do live in a four-color world, and this simple, if surprising point, is exactly what makes CMYK 4-color process printing possible.

Full color printing, often referred to as “CMYK” or 4-color printing, reproduces a comprehensive photographic color spectrum using combinations of four basic ink colors – Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and BlacK.

Artwork and color photographs, once “separated” into their CMYK components, can be reproduced combining the four basic inks to provide a finished product which is virtually indistinguishable from the original.
All color brochures, catalogues, magazines, posters, coffee table books, etc. are printed using this method.

Metallic, fluorescent and some specific PMS (Pantone Matching System) colors cannot be reproduced with the CMYK process, so many of our printing presses offer 5, 6, 7 & 8 color capabilities to allow adding “spot colors” or other special inks to be printed in addition to, and at the same time, as the four CMYK colors.

In years gone by, the CMYK printing process was very complicated and expensive because of the high cost of manually creating color separations and the production of print film and film proofs used in making printing plates.

Our state-of-the-art pre-press department, however, uses advanced CTP (Computer to Plate) technology that eliminates the high cost of producing color separations, print film and film proofs. Now you can afford to take advantage of the high impact, professional quality images that full color printing brings to your marketing and promotional material.