CMY color model facts for kids

When cyan, magenta, and yellow inks mix, they create red, green, and blue. Mixing all three makes a very dark grey.

The CMY color model is a way to mix colors, mostly used in printing. CMY stands for the three special inks printers use: cyan (a blue-green), magenta (a bright pink-purple), and yellow.

This color model is called "subtractive." Imagine white paper. When you put ink on it, the ink "subtracts" or takes away some of the light that bounces off the paper. For example, if you put cyan ink on white paper, it absorbs red light, so you mostly see blue and green light reflected.

White is simply the color of the paper itself. When you mix all three CMY inks together at full strength, you get a color that is almost black.

An early drawing from 1902 showing how three colors can be used for printing.

You might have heard of the CMYK color model. The main difference is that CMYK adds a fourth ink: black (K). The CMY model doesn't use this extra black ink. Because of this, the CMY model isn't as good at making very dark colors. It also uses more of the colored inks to try and make black, which can be less cost-effective for printing.

Related pages

• CMYK color model
• RGB color model
• Color model

Images for kids

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  Clockwise from the top: red, orange, yellow, chartreuse, green, spring, cyan, azure, blue, violet, magenta, and rose