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Category: The Dark Room & Hints - Developing & Printing

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3 complimentary colors of color printing


what are the 3 complimentary colors used in color printing?


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November 06, 2002

 

Pamela J. White
  Magenta, Cyan, And Yellow. Cyan is a bluish color, the reason I say that is because I always thought cyan was brown... So there you have it.


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November 15, 2002

 

Amy
  thanks for the info - needed the info for a question on a job application


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June 17, 2003

 

Lindsey R. Skaggs
  Was it for Ritz camera shop? I googled this and needed the same question for a job application! Wow, that is so cool.


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June 13, 2005

 

John A. Lind
  This question has been asked here periodically for some years now and whenever it's revealed why the question was asked, it's always "Ritz job application."

I'm getting this visualization that Ritz must have hired the old, toothless, haggard, grimy troll from Scene 24 in a rather notorious 30 year old British movie to screen job applicants, and that he's still repeating the script from a later scene in which he unexpectedly reappears near the end:

"What is your name?"

"What is your quest?"

"What are the three complementary colors?"

-- John Lind


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June 14, 2005

 

Christopher A. Vedros
  Good one, John. I was wondering if there were any Python fans around here. Have you seen the parrot in my gallery?


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June 15, 2005

 

John A. Lind
  I have now. Nicely done.

This wouldn't be the very same parrot from Starship Titanic would it? Or perhaps it's the poor Polly that was resurrected in Lazarus manner by the shop keeper *after* the film crew stopped (or ran out of film)?

Correct answer to question number three:
"Additive or subtractive?"

-- John Lind
[who has to know these things]


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June 15, 2005

 

John A. Lind
  More seriously . . .
For the question asked about printing (color prints), and what Ritz is looking for, it's the negative colors mentioned above: cyan, magenta and yellow. In a print, they're "subtractive" as all three together create black, which is the complete absence of color.

FYI, the positive colors red, green and blue. These are what your computer monitor uses.

"Subtractive" is what one gets from reflective usage of colors . . . a print or printed material, or paint on a canvas. "Additive" is what one gets when they're used to illuminate or are used in a luminous manner . . . colored lamps used to light up a building or monument, slide projection, television screen, computer monitor, etc.

-- John Lind


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June 15, 2005

 
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