Complementary colors the complementary wavelength to produce a neutral color (gray or white). Color printing, like painting, also uses subtractive colors, but the complementary colors are different from those used in painting. As a result, the same logic applies as to colors produced by light. Color printing uses the CMYK color model, making colors by overprinting cyan, magenta, yellow, and black ink. In printing the most common complementary colors are magenta–green, yellow–blue, and cyan–red. In terms of complementary/opposite colors, this model gives exactly the same result as using the RGB model. Black is added when needed to make the colors darker. The
Combination printing often necessary to add artistic techniques to photographs. Discussing the benefits of composition in the art of photography and using combination printing, Robinson wrote, in "Pictorial Effect in Photography", that the method of combination served to "produce an agreeable presentation of forms and tones, to tell the story which is to be elucidated, and to embody the spirit of what it is intended the picture shall represent or suggest." His writings show his knowledge and his passion for creating new content in his photos with using this process. During the Victorian Era, another proponent of the technique of combination printing