RGB — light
The additive primaries are red, green and blue. Red and green give yellow; green and blue give cyan; blue and red give magenta. At full intensity, all three sRGB channels produce white.
Understand. Compare. Create.
Primary colours: RGB, CMY and paint
Distinguish the primary colours of light, inks and paint to understand how they mix.
Three models to distinguish
CMY — inks
Cyan, magenta and yellow are the primaries of the ideal subtractive model. Four-colour printing adds black to control dark tones and detail. Actual mixtures depend on inks and the substrate.
Red, yellow, blue — painting
The traditional red-yellow-blue model is used to teach paint mixing. It is a learning model: pigment selection changes which colours can be mixed. It should not be confused with screen primaries.
Secondary colours
A secondary colour results from mixing two primaries within the chosen model. Cyan is secondary in RGB but primary in CMY. Always identify the model before calling a colour primary or secondary.
Cyan
#00FFFFMagenta
#FF00FFYellow
#FFFF00For your project
For a website, use RGB or HEX values. For printing, prepare the file with the profile requested by your printer. For painting, test the pigments you actually have.
30 palettes. Your next idea starts here.
Get my free kit →Get the free colour kit: HEX/RGB codes and a project worksheet.