# Those Dots in Color Newpaper Comics? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [August 11, 2009, 12:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/those-dots-in-color-newpaper-comics/506049 "2009-08-11T12:02:29Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2009, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/those-dots-in-color-newpaper-comics/506049/21 "2009-08-11T20:28:16Z")
> [@njtt](#): > > Why isn’t the acronym for Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Black **CMYB**? K is blac **K**. I believe it came from the German Karbon, in other words carbon or soot: black ink. The Germans were big in inks and dyes a hundred, hundred and fifty years ago when this was being worked out. Ever heard of IG Farben? Farben is paint. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![gigi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a587f6/32.png) [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2009, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/those-dots-in-color-newpaper-comics/506049/22 "2009-08-11T20:30:58Z")
> [@Cliffy](#): > > Ooh, and someone should mention _registration_, which is the process of matching the plates so that your eye blends the colors properly. You still see photos with poor registration in the newspapers all the time, where you can see the magenta plate, for instance, printed a quarter-inch off, making everyone look like like they’ve got a reddish halo on one side, while on the other they’re pale and dead looking. > > –Cliffy My grandpa was a cartoonist for the local paper and did a drawing for their Sunday Magazine (newsprint and not glossy). He would do the drawing and then have separate transparencies with each color painted in the areas it needed to go in. I guess then they would combine them and take a picture??? Or each transparency was for a different plate? ---
**Author:** ![gotpasswords](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c57346/32.png) [@gotpasswords](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gotpasswords)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2009, 8:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/those-dots-in-color-newpaper-comics/506049/23 "2009-08-11T20:35:05Z")
[QUOTE=njtt] Why isn’t the acronym for Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Black **CMYB**? [/QUOTE] [It prevents confusion with blue ink, and helps to keep assistants from being beaten and stuffed through the press.](http://wiki.answers.com/Q/Why_is_black_in_CMYK_called_key) ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2009, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/those-dots-in-color-newpaper-comics/506049/24 "2009-08-11T20:43:16Z")
> [@gotpasswords](#): > > [It prevents confusion with blue ink, and helps to keep assistants from being beaten and stuffed through the press.](http://wiki.answers.com/Q/Why_is_black_in_CMYK_called_key) That’s interesting. I did not know that. ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2009, 8:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/those-dots-in-color-newpaper-comics/506049/25 "2009-08-11T20:46:02Z")
> [@gigi](#): > > My grandpa was a cartoonist for the local paper and did a drawing for their Sunday Magazine (newsprint and not glossy). He would do the drawing and then have separate transparencies with each color painted in the areas it needed to go in. I guess then they would combine them and take a picture??? Or each transparency was for a different plate? Would be for a different plate. Someone upthread mentioned the limited colour palette of newpaper comics? I suspect he simply picked the colours from a sheet, and worked out which colour areas would get which combinations and intensities of C, M, Y, and K. ---
**Author:** ![Cliffy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/59ef9b/32.png) [@Cliffy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cliffy)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2009, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/those-dots-in-color-newpaper-comics/506049/26 "2009-08-11T20:56:47Z")
As **Sunspace** says, each of the transparencies would be used to form a different plate, and then those plates would all ink the same piece of paper (I don’t know enough of the operation of presses to tell you exactly how that works). But that’s why you can have poor registration if the paper moves in between when the first and the last plate do their thing. –Cliffy ---
**Author:** ![beowulff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beowulff/32/542_2.png) [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2009, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/those-dots-in-color-newpaper-comics/506049/27 "2009-08-11T21:47:28Z")
> [@Cliffy](#): > > As **Sunspace** says, each of the transparencies would be used to form a different plate, and then those plates would all ink the same piece of paper (I don’t know enough of the operation of presses to tell you exactly how that works). But that’s why you can have poor registration if the paper moves in between when the first and the last plate do their thing. > > –Cliffy All high-volume presses are roll-fed. In this case, there are a limited number of rollers that can hold images, usually no more than six. The different color images are wrapped around the rollers, and their ink is transferred to the paper as it passes beneath them. The images are usually in fairly close alignment due to the way the plates are held to the rollers, but generally there is a fine adjustment that will allow each color to be registered to all the others. As in all things mechanical, there are tolerances (including paper stretch) which prevent perfect alignment. (a not-very-good description at [wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rotary_printing_press)) ---
**Author:** ![cmyk](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmyk/32/3353_2.png) [@cmyk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmyk)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2009, 12:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/those-dots-in-color-newpaper-comics/506049/28 "2009-08-12T00:32:57Z")
> [@gigi](#): > > My grandpa was a cartoonist for the local paper and did a drawing for their Sunday Magazine (newsprint and not glossy). He would do the drawing and then have separate transparencies with each color painted in the areas it needed to go in. I guess then they would combine them and take a picture??? Or each transparency was for a different plate? I believe most artists would use a red masking film called Rubylith that they would cut out and then affix to as many transparencies as there are colors. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/those-dots-in-color-newpaper-comics/506049.md?page=1)