As we know,colourful pattern or photo has thousands and thousands of colours,it is impossible to print its colours one by one.So,printings divide it into four colours and then print.First,we can divide the design image into four colours as cyan,magenta,yellow and balck,then match colours when printing.It obeys the principle of "the colour subtractive principle",to break up design image into yellow,magenta and cyan because colour filters of red,green and blue has different choose in different coloured light absorb.During colour dividing,the absorbing soloured light is the complementary of itself so that it cause negative film in black and white colour.And then add net,it becomes net dot of nagetive film.At last,copy and tanned in to varies coloured printing plates.It was the earliest photo divide principle.
As the development of printing technology,we can divide colours,take samples and change it to digital information by the scanning machine before printing.It obeys the same principle as photoengraving to divide the design drawing into red,green and blue,and digitized it.Then change its information into four colours'(C/Y/M/K) information by the computer mathematical calculation.