subtractive primaries

Yellow, magenta, and cyan inks used in four-color process printing. They are subtractive in the sense that when they are combined, the color, or radiant energy, that results from the combination is of a lower wavelength than the sum of the wavelengths of the three colors. Therefore, by overlapping equal amounts of cyan, yellow, and magenta ink, black is produced. Subtractive color mixing is achieved in four-color process printing by overlapping successive layers of ink dots. Nonoverlapped dots produce additive color mixes when viewed at a reading distance. Both overlapped and nonoverlapped dots constitute most four-color process images. See also spectrum.