cmyk

lampbane commented on the word cmyk

Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, Black

November 26, 2007

uselessness commented on the word cmyk

This one has annoyed me for years. Whose bright idea was it to have K represent "black"? Why not B?

November 26, 2007

lampbane commented on the word cmyk

Because 'B' stands for "Blue" in RGB.

November 26, 2007

bilby commented on the word cmyk

Yeah but why K?

November 26, 2007

uselessness commented on the word cmyk

Not to mention the fact that this isn't RGB, and there's no B here. ;-)

November 26, 2007

lampbane commented on the word cmyk

I guess this isn't something that would make sense to non-designers/printers. The two terms (CYMK and RGB) may come up in the same sentence (and they do, quite often), you don't want to mix-and-match. You also don't want people thinking that 'B' stands for "Blue" in CYMK, because you already have a blue - cyan.

November 26, 2007

uselessness commented on the word cmyk

Hey, I'm a designer and I resent that! ;-) I still think a better convention could have been used; after all, it is designers who say CMYK and RGB, and they know full well what cyan is. But using K for black isn't helpful at all.

So who deemed that cyan and magenta would be the names of the blue-green and pink? Why not aquamarine and fuchsia? Or teal and amaranth? Or maybe turquoise and cerise?

November 26, 2007

lampbane commented on the word cmyk

Maybe because those names were assigned to other colors before CMYK was conceived?

Look, I didn't like 'K' for Black that much either, but I can't think of anything better at this point anyway.

I'm not really a designer, though I do have a minor in graphic design, and my major was communications, so when you combine those two... the whole system just makes sense to me as a communications tool. Once you get used to 'K' being "Black," that is.

November 26, 2007

uselessness commented on the word cmyk

Hey, I also majored in Communication! Good thing, too: we haven't had many interesting coinkydinks around here in a while... :-P

Anyway, they should have used E for ebony. Problem solved! ;-)

November 27, 2007

vanishedone commented on the word cmyk

There's a Japanese chiptune group called YMCK; previously I'd imagined the K stood for 'kuro(i)', Japanese for black, but if it's an international thing, presumbly not, and someone perhaps went for the last letter of black. Cf. 'K' in baseball.

November 27, 2007

lampbane commented on the word cmyk

What shade of black is the Black in CMYK supposed to be, anyway? Because you know, maybe that's why they didn't use ebony.

And using the last letter seems like a better choice than 'L' (or any other random letter). Using only one letter is certainly a better indicator than say, Bx for Bronx (because 'B' is for Brooklyn).

November 30, 2007

trivet commented on the word cmyk

It could be inKy black...

November 30, 2007

uselessness commented on the word cmyk

The shade of black, presumably, that is the darkest. Do you mean that ebony refers to a lighter color? For me it conjures up thoughts of ebony and ivory, and the colors of black piano keys are probably as dark as they can get. Besides, wouldn't CMYI be easier to pronounce as a word? Maybe?

November 30, 2007

lampbane commented on the word cmyk

I surmise that ebony is not used since it's better known as a tree.

Sad, I always thought that yellow and black were weird being in the same group as cyan and magenta.

November 30, 2007

darqueau commented on the word cmyk

the K does not stand for black. It stands for "key." In printing, black is the "key block". Traditionally, black is printed last, bringing the image together as a whole.

July 9, 2008

dontcry commented on the word cmyk

Thank you, Dark-O! I stepped out. I too majored in Communications -- now I work as a designer as well! There's a list in there somewhere...

July 9, 2008

darqueau commented on the word cmyk

no sweat.

to answer another question concerning the "shade" of black that is standard in CMYK printing: it is called process black

July 9, 2008