In the case of CMYK, which is part of the printing process, a full-color image is divided into four different color channels: Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, and Black. These colors are then printed in the form of halftone dots that come together to produce different shades of color in the image. This technique is commonly used for photographs and artwork, where there are a number of colors to be printed using fewer screens. These separations are normally created in any of the raster image editing tools such as Photoshop. Even though it is a common technique in the printing world, it is no longer commonly used in garment printing due to the emergence of simulated process, which produces greater color vibrancy.
Raster image editing software such as Adobe Photoshop is often used for separation into CMYK colors.