Industrial carbon black was developed in the 19th–20th century as a cheap, consistent black for industrial applications. The tire industry is the largest consumer — carbon black reinforces rubber and makes tires black. The art world's use of carbon black is a small fraction of its industrial production.

Complete, neutral, and absolute. Carbon black is the most technically "black" of all blacks — it absorbs light across the visible spectrum with extraordinary consistency. It lacks the character of ivory black's warmth or lamp black's refinement. In commercial applications, its neutrality is its value; in art, some painters find its perfection slightly lifeless.

Pierre Soulages, the French abstract painter, coined the term "outrenoir" (beyond black) to describe his exploration of pure black paintings — surfaces that create light through texture rather than colour. His works using acrylic black demonstrate that "black" contains infinite variation in how it interacts with light. Carbon black's near-total light absorption makes it the closest approach to theoretical absolute black available in conventional pigments.