CMYK is the name given to the four process colours used in colour printing – Cyan (blue), Magenta (pink), Yellow and Key (black). Large professional print presses as well as small personal laser or inkjet printers use this colour system. The CMYK process prints full-colour images whereby a sheet of paper passes through four separate rollers, each of which is loaded with one of the process colour inks. When laid atop one another, in varying degrees of opacity, they fuse together to create full colour images. For example, forest green is a mix of 71% C, 1% M, 94% Y and 9% K.
In a scene from the 2008 Batman movie The Dark Knight, which stars Christian Bale as Batman, a helicopter lands on the rooftop of Wayne Enterprises delivering Bruce Wayne and his female escorts to a gala evening. Wayne is dressed in black and the three women are clad in similar dresses – one in pink, one in yellow and one in blue. Arm-in-arm, they strut into a room of waiting guests. I like to think that this is movie director Christopher Nolan’s way of paying homage to Batman’s origins as a comic book hero and the CMYK printing process by which they were produced. So much for the Dynamic Duo – this is the Fabulous Foursome!
