CMYK—which stands for Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, and Key (or Black)—is the color model used in most printing. It’s called a subtractive color model, and if you don’t understand what that means or how it works, this brilliant little demo should help.
The video was posted by the Instagram account @physicsfun, and it shows how each subsequent color after the Key below subtracts brightness from the background to create a final color image. In CMYK, all the colors together overlap to create black, compared to the additive RGB model where white is the result of combining Red, Green, and Blue.
All @physicsfun had to do was stack four CMYK coasters on on top of the other, and Vermeer’s painting “Girl with a Pearl Earring” emerges. Check out the video below:
(via Retouchist)