When applied to color reproduction, subtractive color also deals with pigments and filtering. All colored objects contain pigments. These sensitivities have the ability to absorb only portions of white light while reflecting back others.
Pigments exist naturally in the tissues of all plants and animals.
For example, pigments give a flower its unique color. The combination of the light's action on the pigment in an object, combined with how the eye reacts to the reflected light, determines how the color of the object is perceived. These inks are called process colors. A transparent printing ink is made to absorb one component of white light and transmit the other two. Hence, the term transparent.