The CMYK color scheme
The CMYK color scheme enables printers to create color variations by applying four basic color groups, cyan, magenta and yellow. The fourth color, the key, is black. CMYK colors provide color masks, meaning that they subtract light from their underlying surface. This approach to printing paves the way to a variety of colors that publishers can use with a variety of custom effects.
CMYK printing has its origins in the printing business, providing an effective way to apply colors to printed pages in a simple process. Some of the important benefits of printing in the CMYK format include powerful capabilities such as half-toning and screening. Readers who want to learn more about screens and halftones should read about them on Wikipedia. CMYK computer printers emulate traditional printing presses in the way that they apply their colors in screens and tones.
When cyan, magenta and yellow combine, they create black, confirming the masking operation of the CMYK scheme. Although most CMYK printers can make a composite black, they often use a separate black ink or toner cartridge to save ink and improve quality.
Another common color scheme, RGB, works opposite of CMYK in that it adds colors together rather than subtracting them. The colors from this format are red, green and blue. When combined in equal amounts, these colors make white, rather than black. Seemingly insignificant to many consumers, this difference goes undetected during ordinary household use. Professionals, however, avoid RGB because they cannot use screens, half-tones, PMS color libraries and other advanced printing techniques.
Computer users often find that their CMYK artwork looks different on their RGB display than on paper, when they print it to a CMYK printer. This difference results from the inherent incompatibilities between the two color schemes. However, online conversion calculators make RGB equivalents of CMYK values to help designers with their work