A colour model predicated on the observation that pigments of various primary colours can be mixed together to approximate non-primary colours. The CMY model posits three primaries in the cyan, magenta and yellow parts of the spectrum, but leaves the specifics as a responsibility of whatever colour space implements the CMY model.

The CMY model is subtractive as more pigment results in more absorbed light and thus darker colours.

There are many different colour space implementations of the CMY model as different kinds of paper, ink and illuminants all yield different end results. The Grasshopper colour picker provides access to an exceedingly naïve CMY space, which is merely the negative of the sRGB space.