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Mystery of ‘K’ in CMYK The K in CMYK stands for “Key”, nevertheless the answer is much more interesting than that. The “key plate” is said to add the “detail” to a published image. This is correct in that the black menu in a four color method print pushes the comparison and makes “detail”.

Many people claim that the theory of using K instead of B because it can be easily mistaken for “Blue” is known as a myth. Although it is highly speculative what the thinking is, you will find context hints as to why it may actually be authentic.

Mark Gatter, in the book he published titled “Getting it right in print”, claims the “key plate” is employed align the other dishes, but would not mention for what reason it is referred to as “key”. As the term today may have adopted the meaning for the process of aligning plates, the term “key” does not result from this process. The color “registration” much more closely related to the process of aiming plates. The word “key” stems from the rotary printing press in 1843 that experienced screw secrets to control the number of ink producing on a substrate.

Offset pushes also use this kind of mechanism. Other countries who also speak dialects other than English typically employed “CMYK” to mean 4 color procedure, even if the individual colors no longer begin with precisely the same letters. Nevertheless , in The french language speaking countries, the accronym is “CMJN” is used which means “Cyan, Magenta, Jaune, Noir”. “Jaune” and “Noir” convert to “Yellow” and “Black” respectively. This kind of shows that in most countries, the model directly translates to “black” and not “key” or any additional term talking about alignment, depth, or distinction.

While Johannes Gutenburg invented the producing press in Germany about 1454 which usually revolutionized portable type, it had been Jacob Christoph Le Blon who made three-color and four-color method printing around 1725. Precisely what is interesting is the fact his first color models were RYB and RYBK. The argument here is that the color blue (represented by “B”) can be used in the same process while black, so the initial may have been changed to prevent confusion.

His three-color method would have used the same aiming technique since his four-color process, so if “key” was supposed to mean “key plate”, it would theoretically have been completely the blue plate in the three-color model. While it may well never end up being known the exact origin of the use of “key”, it can be discerned that the myth could perhaps be true and that the origin from the term might have been to simply steer clear of confusion with the color green. It appears the context hints may outweigh the notion that K is utilized to denote “detail” or “contrast”. Source: http://gearsidecreative. com/why-is-the-color-black-represented-with-a-k-in-cmyk/