What does CMYK mean?

What is CMYK? (4-color process)

CMYK refers to the printing inks used in four-color process printing. Cyan, Magenta,Yellow and Black are the only four colors used to produce full-color photographs and designs. These colors can be combined and printed to emulate a wide number of other colors. If you look carefully at a printed color photograph in any magazine or book, you'll see that it's made up of rows of tiny dots of each of the four colors called a halftone screen. The dots work together, at different angles, to fool your eye into seeing a full spectrum of colors.

For a graphics file to be printed in CMYK, it must be converted or created in that color mode. When a file goes to print, a different plate is created for each color. Then each color goes down separately onto a piece of paper. Here’s a little video that demonstrates this concept.

It is best to use the CMYK color space instead of RGB when designing anything that will be printed. That way, you will have a better idea of how they will appear in your printed piece. RGB color space can be misleading, showing colors much brighter then what can be reproduced in CMYK.

So, why do we refer to these four ink colors as CMYK and not CMYB? Well, quite simply, it's so that no one will be confused into thinking that the last color is Blue rather than Black.




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Diane Foley
Owner and Lead Designer of The Visual Sense
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