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Subtractive color

Colors that are put down on various types of media are called subtractive colors. Inks are an example of subtractive colors, as the inks act as filters, subtracting components of white light to create colors.

Subtractive color primaries are yellow, cyan and magenta. If mixed together, they are supposed to make black, but because of impurities in pigments usually make a muddy brown color.

To compensate for this failure, printing systems usually use black ink in addition to the subtractive primaries to complete their gamut of reproducible colors.


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