why is the short name of black 'k' ?

Hi,

I was just curious if there was a specific reason why the short name of black is 'k'?

(Is it because 'b' is taken already and 'k' is the last letter of black; or does it come from a different language; or any other reason?)

Thanks a lot!

Answer 1

[Steven Lord]

I'm not certain but I suspect it refers to the "keyline" or "key plate" as mentioned on the Wikipedia page for the CMYK color model.

[Nikolai Gerstner]

Thanks a lot that makes sense.

[John D'Errico]

I'm quite confident that Steve has it right.