There are various colour systems. The 3 colour one you mention is based on oil painting and not on printing.
The CMYK originated from the time it became able to press with colour as it gave a bigger range of colours to achieve while layering the four base colours.
Another one frequently used nowadays would be the RGB colourspace, refering to the red, green and blue base light colours from screens / digital devices. RGB colours can also be displayed as socalled hex codes consisting out of 3 numbers on a 2 digit 16 digit numeral system [00-ff].
Then there is the Natural Colour System (with the base colours red / yellow / green / blue / white / black) which is currently widely used and is based on how we precieve colour.
Other examples are RAL which is used in for construction purposes and Pantone, which basically is a jar of inkt for each and every colour (mostly used for branding purposes - logos).
Some examples for Fire Engine Red:
RGB (206, 32, 41)
Hex : #ce2029
HSL : 357, 73%, 47%
CMYK : (0, 84.47, 80.10, 19.22)
PMS : 485 would be a good estimate imho _________________ Bart J.A.H. de Brouwer |