Why do printers have CMYK ink instead of RYB & black ink?

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Why do printers have CMYK ink instead of RYB & black ink?

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Anonymous 0 Comments

Because Red, Yellow, and Blue are not really primary colors of pigments. [Look at this graphic.](https://www.wtamu.edu/~cbaird/sq/images/color_mixing.png)

The top shows red, green, and blue which are the primary colors of light. That is additive color which is how light works, where by mixing different amounts of each of those colors of light you can make any other color. Mixing all the colors of light together gets you the color white.

The bottom shows cyan, magenta, and yellow which are the primary colors of pigments, which is how subtractive color works. Pigments absorb certain colors of light and reflect the rest for you to see. Mixing all the colors of pigment together gets you the color black.

Note how mixing adjacent primary additive colors together gets you cyan, magenta, and yellow as secondary colors. Also notice how mixing the adjacent primary subtractive colors together gets you red, green, and blue as secondary colors.

Red, yellow, blue just isn’t really a proper set of primary colors at all. I mean in concept you can use any three colors as primary colors (red, orange, and yellow for example) but it would just leave you with a reduced color gamut and the inability to produce some colors. Unfortunately many people are still taught this system simply through weight of tradition.

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