Our Latest Discovery » graphics http://itknowledgeexchange.techtarget.com/whatis A Whatis.com blog Wed, 20 Feb 2013 18:00:15 +0000 en-US hourly 1 From the e(mailbox): The K in CMYK does not stand for black http://itknowledgeexchange.techtarget.com/whatis/from-the-emailbox-the-k-in-cmyk-does-not-stand-for-black/ http://itknowledgeexchange.techtarget.com/whatis/from-the-emailbox-the-k-in-cmyk-does-not-stand-for-black/#comments Thu, 09 Feb 2012 16:04:11 +0000 Ivy Wigmore http://itknowledgeexchange.techtarget.com/whatis/?p=1020 We get letters! OK, mostly spam and overdue homework assignments, but we do get letters. And some of them are interesting and helpful.

Such was the case with the following note. Valerie Cox wrote us to explain a problem with our definition of CMYK (cyan, magenta, yellow, black):

‘CMYK is a scheme for combining primary pigments. The C stands for cyan (aqua), M stands for magenta (pink), Y is yellow, and K stands for black.’

This is incorrect.

The K does not stand for “black,”  it stands for “Key.”  The key color in today’s printing world is black, but it has not always been this way.   During the early days of printing, the colors used for Key have been brown, blue, or black, whichever was the cheapest ink to acquire for the times.”

Valerie Cox
Visual Design

We should have guessed there was more to that story… we’ve read our alphabet books and we do understand how initialisms work: A is for Apple, K is for… something that starts with K.

Read more about acronyms and initialisms. (It’s interesting. I promise.)

Thanks to Ms. Cox for making us look just that little bit smarter today than we did yesterday!

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