A secondary colour is made by mixing two primary colours in a specific colour space. The colour space can be from an additive colour model using different light wavelengths or a subtractive model using pigments or dyes.
- Secondary colours in additive colour models differ from spectral colours in a rainbow.
- A spectral colour is made by a single wavelength or a small range of wavelengths in the visible spectrum.
- A secondary colour within an additive model (such as the RGB colour model) comes from overlapping light wavelengths from three distinctly different parts of the visible spectrum.
- For humans, the best additive primary colours of light are red, green, and blue.
- The RGB colour model can create a vast range of colours.
- Because the RGB colour model involves adding different wavelengths of light together (additive colour), the resulting colour often appears lighter to a viewer than its components.
- When all three primary (or secondary) colours are mixed together in equal proportions, the result is white.
- In subtractive colour models, like the CMYK model used for printing, the primary colours are cyan (C), magenta (M), and yellow (Y) and black (K).