CMYK: The ink type of colour. I’m sure you will have heard of CMYK before if you’re even in the slightest interested in print, which from reading this I will assume you are. CMYK (Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, Key*) are the 4 different inks used in the process of printing, you’ll find them easily within your standard ink jet printer and in a laser printer. These inks are used on a much larger scale than these but using different processes (half toning) to create similar products. The reason CMYK is used is because the 3 colours CMY overlay one another they create gray/black, adding the K on top solidifies and strengthens the black tones within an image. This is ink is subtractive, the more you add the more colour is ‘subtracted’ hence why it leads to black, theoretically. *You’re probably thinking ‘What’s key?’ Well, ‘key’ is the called that because it is the key plate in printing (The plate that Is used to align the other colours), because in industry large-scale printing, plates are used, also because B stands for blue already.
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