Brunette Girl Strips Her Cyan Top And Lingerie On The Couch

The vivid cyan that is seen on an electronic display device (shown at right) is also referred to as electric cyan to distinguish it from the less vivid turquoise blue-like process cyan used in CMYK color printing. (Note: while the color is defined by definite RGB values, the display of the color will vary depending on the absolute color space used and the nature of the physical display device, e.g. computer monitor, and if this page is printed it is likely that the color shown will be far from representative.)
The web color aqua is an alias for electric cyan, that is, it is exactly the same color as electric cyan.
To reproduce electric cyan in inks, it is necessary to add some white ink to the printer's cyan, so when it is reproduced in printing, it is not a primary subtractive color. It is called aqua (a name in use since 1598) because it is a color commonly associated with water, such as the appearance of the water at a tropical beach.