There are many different ways of representing color, and each color system is suited for different purposes. The most fundamental representation is RGB color space.

RGB stands for "Red-Green-Blue," and it is a color system commonly employed in camera sensors and computer graphics displays. As the three primary colors that sum to form white light, they can combine in proportion to create most any color in the visible spectrum. RGB is the basis for all other color spaces, and it is the overwhelming choice of color space for computer graphics.

Just as RGB rules the display graphics world, CYMK reigns in the printing realm. CYMK stands for "Cyan-Yellow-Magenta-blacK," and it is a popular color space for printing and painting. It can be regarded as the inverse of the RGB color system, to the extent that RGB is additive, and CYMK is subtractive. In other words, whereas R, G and B light add together to form white light, C, Y and M inks add together to absorb all white. In other words, they create black. However, because it's difficult to create pure black, given the physical properties of printing media, true black is also added to the color system (hence the fourth letter, "K").