Why do printers have CMYK ink instead of RYB & black ink?
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RGB are the “additive” colors which can recreate all the colors the human eye can see when added to black.
Pigment works by “subtracting” colors from white. You cannot “add” color to white paper as it already reflects all color. Instead you remove colors by applying color-absorbing pigment. Cyan absorbs the color red, yellow absorbs blue, and magenta absorbs green.
This means that to create “green” you have to add all the colors that are not magenta (cyan and yellow). If you instead used green pigment, you would be able to make green with only a single pigment but you would lose the ability to create cyan or yellow (or else the cyan and yellow would be too dark and murky).
Now pigments don’t behave exactly the way we want them to, and they tend to create “layers” and interact with each other. This is why some printers do add extra colors. Black is an example, as it cannot easily be made by mixing all pigments. This tends to produce brown instead, probably due to the fact that the pigments form layers and are somewhat reflective. Ideally only the white paper back would be reflective and the pigments only absorptive.
Now why are red, green, and blue primary colors? Because they correspond to the [3 wavelengths of light that the cones in your retina are sensitive to.](https://i.stack.imgur.com/JtqUU.png) Also many people seem to be unfamiliar with what the color [“true” green](https://www.solidbackgrounds.com/images/1920×1080/1920×1080-bright-green-solid-color-background.jpg) looks like (Among us players call it “lime”). It appears the brightest out of all 3 primary colors simply because that is how the brain perceives it (but it isn’t any brighter in actuality than red or blue). Humans tend to associate the color green with forests and leaves, but this color is usually a desaturated and darker green.
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