Cyan-Magenta-Yellow-Black Printing

What Does Cyan-Magenta-Yellow-Black Printing Mean?

Cyan-magenta-yellow-black (CMYK) printing is a printing technique used by most color printers. Each color visible to the human eye can be described as a combination, in different ratios, of these four colors; a CMYK printer uses only these four colors to print any color on a document.

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Cyan-magenta-yellow-black printing is also known as four-color printing or process color printing.

Techopedia Explains Cyan-Magenta-Yellow-Black Printing

Cyan-magenta-yellow-black printing is a printing standard used in most color printers. A CMYK model is a pigment model whereby cyan, magenta, yellow and sometimes black are the primary pigments. All other pigments are made from the combination, in varying amounts, of these basic pigments. A tool for desktop publishing is used that matches the RGB display color to its corresponding CMYK value so the printed copy is the same as the displayed color.

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Margaret Rouse

Margaret Rouse is an award-winning technical writer and teacher known for her ability to explain complex technical subjects to a non-technical, business audience. Over the past twenty years her explanations have appeared on TechTarget websites and she's been cited as an authority in articles by the New York Times, Time Magazine, USA Today, ZDNet, PC Magazine and Discovery Magazine.Margaret's idea of a fun day is helping IT and business professionals learn to speak each other’s highly specialized languages. If you have a suggestion for a new definition or how to improve a technical explanation, please email Margaret or contact her…