绝大多数情况下，我们都在白色介质上打印：白色纸张、白色卡片和其他中性白色表面。但是打印白色怎么办？现代打印机能打印白色吗？如果不能，为什么不能？在我们探索色彩理论，打印机设计选择，以及为什么白色是印刷过程的基础上，请继续阅读。

今天的问答环节是由SuperUser提供的，SuperUser是Stack Exchange的一个分支，是一个由社区驱动的问答网站分组。图片由Coiote O；可用作墙纸在这里。

问题

超级用户读者好奇的孩子对打印机很好奇。他写道：

I was reading about different color models, when this question hit my mind.

Can the CMYK color model generate white color?

Printers use CMYK color mode. What will happen if I try to print a white colored image (rabbit) on a black paper with my printer? Will I get any image on the paper?

CMYK彩色模型有白色的空间吗？

答案

超级用户贡献者Darth Android提供了对CMYK过程的一些见解：

You will not get anything on the paper with a basic CMYK inkjet or laser printer. The CMYK color mixing is subtractive, meaning that it requires the base that is being colored to have all colors (i.e., White) So that it can create color variation through subtraction:

White is represented as 0 cyan, 0 yellow, 0 magenta, and 0 black – effectively, 0 ink for a printer that simply has those four cartridges. This works great when you have white media, as “printing no ink” simply leaves the white exposed, but as you can imagine, this doesn’t work for non-white media.

If you don’t have a base color to subtract from (i.e., Black), then it doesn’t matter what you subtract from it, you still have the color Black.

[But], as others are pointing out, there are special printers which can operate in the CMYW color space, or otherwise have a white ink or toner. These can be used to print light colors on top of dark or otherwise non-white media.

You might also find my answer to a different question about color spaces helpful or informative.

考虑到世界上大多数的打印机介质是白色的，在非白色的颜色上打印纯白是一个特殊的过程，所以家用和（大多数）商用打印机都没有这方面的规定也就不足为奇了。

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