- This article is about the color. For other uses see Cyan (disambiguation)
Cyan is a pure spectral color, but the same hue can also be generated by mixing equal amounts of green and blue light. As such, cyan is the complement of red: cyan pigments absorb red light. Cyan is sometimes called blue-green or turquoise and often goes undistinguished from light blue.
Cyan is one of the common inks used in four-color printing, along with magenta, yellow, and black; this set of colors is referred to as CMYK.
Note that while both of these colors are called cyan they are actually substantially different from one another. Cyan printing ink is much less vivid, indeed CMYK printing technology cannot accurately reproduce pure cyan (100% blue + 100% green) on paper.
See also