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Why do they call them "four-color"?

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RavenWilder Since: Apr, 2009
#1: Mar 11th 2011 at 7:43:43 AM

What exactly is a "four-color" comic? 'Cause I've counted, and every in-color comic book I've come across uses all seven parts of the visible light spectrum (plus black, white, and brown, which may or may not count as colors depending on your Personal Dictionary). What is this term supposed to mean?

DrFurball Since: Jan, 2001
#2: Mar 11th 2011 at 7:58:40 AM

If I'm not mistaken, it's because, back in the day, there were only four colors of ink to use. If you look closely at some old comics, the colors are actually a pattern of very tiny dots. Making the pattern composed of red and blue will result in what looks like purple, for example.

RavenWilder Since: Apr, 2009
#4: Mar 11th 2011 at 6:07:31 PM

Is that why in older comics a bunch of things that are supposed to be black look blue instead?

DragonQuestZ The Other Troper from Somewhere in California Since: Jan, 2001
The Other Troper
#5: Mar 11th 2011 at 6:21:25 PM

No, that was to set them off from other black things. Black was one of the four colors.

I'm on the internet. My arguments are invalid.
Gvzbgul from Middle Earth Since: Jul, 2010
#6: Mar 11th 2011 at 10:57:05 PM

Thanks for that, it always annoyed me that Ghost Rider was blue in the old comincs, but now I can just pretend its black.

VampireBuddha Calendar enthusiast from Ireland (Wise, aged troper) Relationship Status: Complex: I'm real, they are imaginary
Calendar enthusiast
#7: Mar 12th 2011 at 3:55:20 AM

Actually, there still are only four colours of ink: cyan, magenta, yellow, and black. Every other colour is made by combining two or three of those in various amounts.

Modern comics are printed the same was as those of days gone by; the dots are just much smaller.

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LeeM Lee M from Somewhere in England Since: Jan, 2001
Lee M
#8: Aug 31st 2013 at 8:53:42 PM

I see this is an old discussion. Nonetheless...

There was a slightly cheaper variation called three-color, where Black and Cyan were replaced by a kind of navy blue, or maybe dark cyan. So all the outlines and text were dark blue, and other colors were less accurate.

edited 31st Aug '13 8:54:44 PM by LeeM

Currently co-writing a webcomic you can't read about on TV Tropes because the admins mistook it for porn.
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