Overlapping Beams of C M & Y Make White
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This diagram shows the effect of projecting cyan, magenta and yellow light onto a neutral coloured surface.
- In the RGB colour model, cyan, magenta and yellow are secondary colours. Notice what colours are produced where they overlap!
- Imagine that the three circles of colour (cyan, magenta and yellow) are produced by torches shining beams of light so they overlap one another.
- Overlapping pairs of primary colours produce secondary colours.
- But in this diagram overlapping pairs of secondary colours produce primary colours
- The area where all three primary colours overlap is white.
Understanding the diagram
- The diagrams illustrate how the RGB colour model works in practice.
- Each torch emits light at the same intensity.
- Each torch points towards a different area of the surface.
- The light in each case is produced by two wavelengths so produces an RGB colour.
Description
Overlapping Beams of C, M & Y Make White
TRY SOME QUICK QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS TO GET STARTED
Although pure white light is perceived as colourless, it actually contains all colours in the visible spectrum.
About the diagram
About the diagram
- This diagram shows the effect of projecting lights producing the RGB secondary colours (cyan, magenta and yellow) onto a neutral coloured surface.
- Imagine that the three circles of colour (cyan, magenta and yellow) are produced by torches shining beams of light so they overlap one another.
- In the RGB colour model, cyan, magenta and yellow are secondary colours. Notice what colours are produced where they overlap – it’s the three primary colours!
- Overlapping pairs of primary colours produce secondary colours.
- Overlapping pairs of secondary colours produce primary colours.
- Remember that the area where all three primary colours or all three secondary colours overlap is white.
About the RGB colour model
- RGB colour is an additive colour model that combines wavelengths of light corresponding with the red, green and blue primary colours to produce other colours.
- RGB colour is called a model because it is a method that can be followed to produce any colour from a combination of red, green and blue light.
- Red, green and blue are called additive primary colours in an RGB colour model because they can be added together to produce any other colour.
- When mixing light, each RGB primary colour is called a component of the resulting colour.
- Different colours are produced by varying the intensity of the component colours between fully off and fully on.
- When any two fully saturated RGB primaries are combined they produce a secondary colour: yellow, cyan or magenta.
- When fully saturated red, green and blue primary colours are all combined together they produce white.
- Some RGB colour models can produce over 16 million colours by varying the proportion and intensity of each of the three component primary colours.
- The additive RGB colour model cannot be used for mixing different colours of pigments, paints, inks, dyes or powders. To understand these colourants find out about subtractive colour.
- The RGB colour model does not define the precise wavelength or band of wavelengths for the primary colours red, green and blue.
- When the exact composition of primary colours are defined, the colour model then becomes an absolute colour space.
Some key terms
White light
White light is the name given to visible light that contains all wavelengths of the visible spectrum at equal intensities ...
What is the trichromatic colour model?
The trichromatic colour model is a theory of colour that establishes terms, rules and methods to enable human colour vision ...
Primary colour
Primary colours are a set of colours from which others can be produced by mixing (pigments, dyes etc.) or overlapping ...
Colour wheel
A colour wheel is a diagram based on a circle divided into segments. The minimum number of segments is three ...
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