CMYK color model

The CMYK color model represents color with cyan, magenta, yellow, and black inks. It is used chiefly in printing, where inks absorb light reflected by paper.

Subtractive color: A color model in which pigments or filters produce color by absorbing portions of incident light. CMYK inks create color by subtracting wavelengths from light reflected off the paper.
Four-color process: A printing method that reproduces images by layering cyan, magenta, yellow, and black inks. It is the standard production process built around the CMYK model.
RGB color model: An additive color model that represents colors by combining red, green, and blue light. RGB emits light, while CMYK inks absorb light reflected from paper.
Jacob Christoph Le Blon: An eighteenth-century painter and printmaker who developed color printing using separate color plates. Le Blon's layered color-printing methods anticipated the logic of process color reproduction.
Cyan: A blue-green color that absorbs red light and serves as a primary ink in CMYK printing. Cyan ink supplies the blue-green component of the four-ink process.
Color separation: The preparation of separate printing plates or channels for the components of a multicolor image. CMYK artwork is separated into four ink channels before plates or screens are produced.
Pantone Matching System: A standardized system of named spot colors used to specify and match printing inks. Spot inks can reproduce colors that CMYK process inks cannot match precisely.
Chromolithography: A lithographic printing method that uses separate stones or plates to print multiple colors. CMYK belongs to a longer history of printing color through separately prepared inks.
Magenta: A vivid purplish-red color that absorbs green light and serves as a primary ink in CMYK printing. Magenta ink supplies the red component used to reproduce printed colors.
Printing plate: A surface that transfers ink to paper or another substrate during printing. Each CMYK channel can be transferred through its own plate in offset printing.

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