I am trying to create a image sized 1X1 in CMYK color space. as first step I am creating bitmapContext as CGColorSpaceRef cmykcolorSpace = CGColorSpaceCreateDeviceCMYK(); CGContextRef currentcontext = CGBitmapContextCreate(NULL, 1, 1, 8, //bitsPerComponent 4, // bytesPerRow cmykcolorSpace, kCGImageAlphaNone ); No matter what the combination for bitsPerComponent(8,16 or 32) for supported CMYK, there's always same error Unsupported pixel description - 4 components, 8 bits-per-component, 32 bits-per-pixel Any help is appreicated. These are the supported pixel formats 32 bpp, 8 bpc, kCGImageAlphaNone 64 bpp, 16 bpc, kCGImageAlphaNone 128 bpp, 32 bpc, kCGImageAlphaNone | kCGBitmapFloatComponents