Why do printers have CMYK ink instead of RYB & black ink?
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Because Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Black (CMYK) can be combined to create colours on a piece of paper. Red, Green and Blue (RGB), on the other hand, are be used to combine colours on a screen. CMYK is about **reflecting** light into our eyes by using ink that absorbs the right wavelengths, while RGB is about **emitting** light directly. This is a very important distinction, because there are different rules when mixing colours.
There is no such thing as black light, which is why RGB has no “K” in it. Black would be the LED’s in your screen turning off and returning to their base colour, which is a dark tone that feels like black when it stands in contrast with light around it. However, there is something like black ink on a piece of paper, which is an object that absorbs all wavelengths of light at the same time. The deeper the black, the less light it reflects.
Perfect white on a piece of paper, on the other hand, is a reflection of all wavelengths of light at the same time. But you don’t get that by throwing cyan, magenta and yellow ink together. On paper it’s the opposite. You throw their absorbing properties together to get black, which is why these colours are used specifically.
Because Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Black (CMYK) can be combined to create colours on a piece of paper. Red, Green and Blue (RGB), on the other hand, are be used to combine colours on a screen. CMYK is about **reflecting** light into our eyes by using ink that absorbs the right wavelengths, while RGB is about **emitting** light directly. This is a very important distinction, because there are different rules when mixing colours.
There is no such thing as black light, which is why RGB has no “K” in it. Black would be the LED’s in your screen turning off and returning to their base colour, which is a dark tone that feels like black when it stands in contrast with light around it. However, there is something like black ink on a piece of paper, which is an object that absorbs all wavelengths of light at the same time. The deeper the black, the less light it reflects.
Perfect white on a piece of paper, on the other hand, is a reflection of all wavelengths of light at the same time. But you don’t get that by throwing cyan, magenta and yellow ink together. On paper it’s the opposite. You throw their absorbing properties together to get black, which is why these colours are used specifically.
Red yellow and blue are not the actual primaries. Cyan magenta and yellow are. However we do not have perfect pigments such that the combination completely absorbs light. So we add black.
Red yellow and blue are not the actual primaries. Cyan magenta and yellow are. However we do not have perfect pigments such that the combination completely absorbs light. So we add black.
Red yellow and blue are not the actual primaries. Cyan magenta and yellow are. However we do not have perfect pigments such that the combination completely absorbs light. So we add black.
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