Mixing RGB Primary Colours

A subtractive colour model helps to make sense of what happens when different coloured pigments (eg. paints, inks, dyes or powders) are mixed to produce other colours.

In the RGB colour model green and blue are the two primary colours that together make cyan!

RGB is a colour model used to produce a full palette of colours by mixing red, green and blue light sources in different proportions.

Yes! An observer can see both a rainbow and colours produced by paints at the same time.

No! Red, green and blue are primary colours within additive colour models and can only be produced by a single wavelength of light.

A subtractive colour model combines different hues of a colourant such as a pigment, paint, ink, dye or powder to produce other colours.

• CMYK is a subtractive colour model.
• CMYK pigments are the standard for colour printing because they have a larger gamut than RGB pigments.
• CMYK printing typically uses white paper with good reflective properties and then adds cyan, magenta, yellow and black ink or toner to produce colour.
• Highlights are produced by reducing the amount of coloured ink and printing without black to allow the maximum amount of light to reflect off the paper through the ink.
• Mid tones rely on the brilliance and transparency of the pigments and the reflectivity of the paper to produce fully saturated colours.
• Shadows are produced by adding black to both saturated and desaturated hues.

 

An additive colour model explains how different coloured lights (such as LEDs or beams of light) are mixed to produce other colours.

• Additive colour refers to the methods used and effects produced by combining or mixing different wavelengths of light.
• The RGB colour model and HSB colour model are examples of additive colour models.
• Additive colour models such as the RGB colour model and HSB colour model can produce vast ranges of colours by combining red, green, and blue lights in varying proportions.
• An additive approach to colour is used to achieve precise control over the appearance of colours on digital screens of TVs, computers, and phones.

A secondary colour is created by mixing two primary colours in equal parts within a particular colour model. The colour space can belong to either an additive colour model, which combines different light wavelengths, or a subtractive colour model, which mixes pigments or dyes.

• In additive colour models such as the RGB colour model, which deals with the effects of mixing coloured light, a secondary colour results from the overlap of the primary colours: red, green, and blue. The secondary colours produced by mixing pairs of primary colours in the RGB model are cyan, magenta, and yellow.
• In subtractive colour models such as the CMY colour model, which is concerned with mixing dyes and inks, a secondary colour results from the overlap of the primary colours: cyan, magenta, and yellow. The secondary colours produced by mixing pairs of primary colours in the CMY model are red, green, and blue.

Primary colours are a set of colours from which others can be produced by mixing (pigments, dyes etc.) or overlapping (coloured lights).

• The human eye, and so human perception, is tuned to the visible spectrum and so to spectral colours between red and violet. It is the sensitivity of the eye to the electromagnetic spectrum that results in the perception of colour.
• A set of primary colours is a set of pigmented media or coloured lights that can be combined in varying amounts to produce a wide range of colours.
• This process of combining colours to produce other colours is used in applications intended to cause a human observer to experience a particular range of colours when represented by electronic displays and colour printing.
• Additive and subtractive models have been developed that predict how wavelengths of visible light, pigments and media interact.
• RGB colour is a technology used to reproduce colour in ways that match human perception.
• The primary colours used in a colour space such as CIELAB, NCS, Adobe RGB (1998) and sRGB are the result of an extensive investigation of the relationship between visible light and human colour vision.

RGB colour is an additive colour model in which red, green and blue light is combined to reproduce a wide range of other colours.

• The primary colours in the RGB colour model are red, green and blue.
• In the RGB model, different combinations and intensities of red, green, and blue light are mixed to create various colours. When these three colours are combined at full intensity, they produce white light.
• Additive colour models are concerned with mixing light, not dyes, inks or pigments (these rely on subtractive colour models such as the RYB colour model and the CMY colour model).
• The RGB colour model works in practice by asking three questions of any colour: how red is it (R), how green is it (G), and how blue is it (B).
• The RGB model is popular because it can easily produce a comprehensive palette of 1530 vivid hues simply by adjusting the combination and amount of each of the three primaries it contains.

The CMY colour model deals with a subtractive method of colour mixing. It can be used to explain and provide practical methods of combining three transparent inks and filters (cyan, magenta and yellow) to produce a wide range of other colours and particularly to produce realistic effects when printing digital images onto highly reflective white paper.

• The primary colours in the CMY colour model are cyan, magenta and yellow.
• The CMY colour model is a subtractive colour model used with transparent or translucent inks or filters.
• Meanwhile, the CMYK colour model (sometimes called four-colour or process printing) uses the same three primary colours as CMY but uses a fourth component, black ink (K), to increase the density of darker colours and blacks.
• The CMYK colour model along with its system of notation enables an exact and reproducible approach to colour printing and other similar applications.
• The CMYK colour model is deeply embedded in all contemporary digital printer technologies and underpins industrial standards for the printing industry.
• Find out more here https://lightcolourvision.org/dictionary/definition/cmy-colour-model/