A colour wheel is a diagram based on a circle divided into segments and can be used to explore the effect of mixing adjacent colours.
An RGB colour wheel provides a graphic representation of the RGB colour model.
- RGB colour wheels have a minimum of three segments or spokes. These are filled with the additive primary colours red, green and blue.
- Starting with the three primary colours, an RGB colour wheel can demonstrate the effect of mixing adjacent segments to produce progressively more subtle gradations of intermediate hues.
- An RGB colour wheel is particularly useful when trying to visually identify and specify:
- A particular RGB colour
- The relationship between different RGB colours
- Find the colour value (code) for an RGB colour.
- LED light sources producing very narrow bands of wavelengths can be used when demonstrating RGB colour wheels by projecting red, green and blue LEDs onto a neutrally toned surface.
- The peak wavelength for selected colours might typically be red = 625 nanometres, green = 500 nm and blue = 440 nm.