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Early in grade-school you learn blue, red, and yellow are the primary colors that can be used to produce any other color. If you're curious enough, you later learn the primary colors are actually cyan, magenta, yellow and -- for practical purposes -- key (black).

My question is, what substances are used for each of these pigments and where are they found? Are they synthesized?

To be concrete, what substances are inside the in CMYK inks found in desktop inkjet printers?

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    $\begingroup$ Printing ink is a pretty expensive industry, i don't think such kinds of information will be easily available. $\endgroup$
    – Sujith Sizon
    Commented Dec 6, 2015 at 14:58
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    $\begingroup$ Yes, that's probably true. Now I feel too self conscious to post my other question: "What's the difference between the Pepsi and Coke recipes?" :P $\endgroup$
    – Dan Kowalczyk
    Commented Dec 6, 2015 at 16:31
  • $\begingroup$ Well you could always reverse engineer your subject (inks/drinks) and find it out for yourself. $\endgroup$
    – Sujith Sizon
    Commented Dec 6, 2015 at 18:14
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    $\begingroup$ @SujithSizon reverse engineering must be done in secret, otherwise you can get a lot of troubles. But there is some info about components google.com/patents/US4818285 But it is not 20% compound A, 35% compound C... $\endgroup$
    – XuMuK
    Commented Mar 3, 2016 at 9:17
  • $\begingroup$ @XuMuK damn bro,did some serious homework $\endgroup$
    – Anjankumar
    Commented Mar 20 at 7:46

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If you are interested in the colour pigments, there is a lot of similar ones. And the different mixtures can be made with almost no difference. You can find a lot of different options for CMYK (because the inkjet printers and the laser printers are completely different).

For example, this patent:

  • The chelating agent of preference is ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid (EDTA), and the preferred biocide is Dowicil 75 manufactured by Dow Chemical. Dowicil 75 is a powdered material composed of 1-(3-chloroallyl)-3,5,7-triaza-1-azoniaadamantane chloride, sodium bicarbonate and hexamethylenetetramine hydrochloride.
  • The preferred cyan dye compound is Direct Blue 86, such as Intrabond Liquid Turquoise GLL, manufactured by Crompton and Knowles.
  • Preferably, the magenta dye comprises a plurality of individual magenta dye compounds. The preferred magenta dye compounds are Reactive Red 40 and Acid Red 52. Exemplary magenta dyes compounds include Bay Script Brilliant Red Ink 4B, manufactured by Mobay Chemical (Reactive Red 40), and Sandolan Rhodamine E-B manufactured by Sandoz Chemical (Acid Red 52).
  • Yellow dye compound, preferably Direct Yellow 107. A preferred Direct Yellow 107 compound is Direct Yellow G200, manufactured by Crompton and Knowles.
  • A preferred black dye is SP Black Liquid, manufactured by Mobay Chemical.
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