CMYK
The subtractive four-ink model — cyan, magenta, yellow and black — used in commercial printing.
Measured in
%
In depth
Where screens add coloured light, inks subtract it by absorbing wavelengths, so the models behave inversely and their gamuts differ substantially. CMYK cannot reach the saturated blues and greens a screen shows, and black ink is added because the three colour inks together produce a muddy brown rather than a true black.
Examples in practice
A vivid cyan swimming pool that glows on screen prints as a duller blue because it lies outside the CMYK gamut.