Introduction To The CMYK Color System

The primary CMYK pigments are cyan, magenta and yellow. Black (K) is also considered to be a primary pigment, and this will create darker versions of the other pigments. Black can also be created by combining cyan, magenta and yellow in large amounts.

The CMYK color system is used for printed illustrations. It uses pigments as opposed to light. The difference between these is that where colors exist by representing energy reflected from a luminous object (such as our 'flashlight' example), pigments represent energy that is not absorbed by substances such as ink or paint. For this reason, it is known as the Subtractive Color System.

For example, cyan ink on a piece of paper is cyan because it will absorb energy from normal white light at all visible wavelengths except for the part of the spectrum that represents cyan, which is reflected.

Combining the different primary pigments (cyan, magenta and yellow) will create the appearance of each of the different primary colors (red, green and blue). The following diagram is a reversal of the 'flashlight' example diagram.

 
Referring to the diagram on the left, the related hexadecimal values are as follows:

  · When there are no levels of any pigment, the resulting color is white (W), represented by #FFFFFF.

  · When all pigments are combined in equal large amounts, the resulting color is black (K), represented by #000000.

  · Cyan: #00FFFF

  · Magenta: #FF00FF

  · Yellow: #FFFF00

  · Red (magenta and yellow): #FF0000

  · Green (cyan and yellow): #00FF00

  · Blue (cyan and magenta): #0000FF





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