Minolta PAGEPRO EX, Manual

Page: 118 / 247

The Properties of Color
5-5
Col
o
r
M
anagement
Cha
p
te
r
5
The
subtractive primaries
are cyan, magenta, and yellow; they
absorb red, green, and blue light, respectively. Combining any two
subtractive primaries creates a new color that is relatively pure or
saturated. For example, you can make red by combining magenta and
yellow, which absorb green and blue light, respectively. White occurs
when no colorant is applied. Combining all three subtractive
primaries in theory yields black, but due to deficiencies of cyan,
magenta, and yellow colorants, combining these three primaries
actually yields a muddy brown. Black colorant is added to
compensate for the deficiencies of cyan, magenta, and yellow
colorants, and consequently color printing uses four
process colors
:
C
yan,
M
agenta,
Y
ellow, and blac
K
(CMYK). The use of black ink
helps in producing rich solid blacks and also allows for improved
rendition of black text.
Print device gamut
Different color reproduction techniques have different color
capabilities, or gamuts. Color transparency films have comparatively
large gamuts, as do color monitors. The color gamut that can be
produced using CMYK toners on paper is smaller. This is why some
colors that can be displayed on a color monitor, especially bright
saturated colors, cannot be reproduced exactly by your print device–
nor, for that matter, can they be reproduced on press using process
colors. Moreover, different print devices have different gamuts–some
colors that your print device can produce cannot be reproduced on an
offset press, and vice versa. The following illustration provides a
graphical representation of this concept.