Understanding Color/Color reproduction | Index | Home |
How are colors reproduced in printing? |
The smooth changes of colors in a photograph or painting are called continuous tone. |
In printing, this effect must be simulated by adding black (K) ink to a set of inks for the three subtractive primary colors: cyan (C), magenta (M), and yellow (Y) (called process color inks). |
Process color inks are translucent, so a cyan halftone dot printed on top of a yellow halftone dot will appear green. Strongly colored areas have many dots, and weakly colored areas have few. In this way, various gradations can be reproduced. |