From Pixels To Paper

A printed page does not have glowing pixels however. It can only reflect the light that hits it from an external light source. This light is generally white, like the paper, and must be filtered through ink to reproduce different colors. In this process, all the colors except the desired ones are removed from the white light, allowing the desired ones to enter our eyes. This "subtractive" model uses four basic ink colors: cyan, magenta, yellow, and black (CMYK). By combining these "filters" through the application of CMYK inks, a large number of the visible colors can be reproduced.