Introduction
In elementary school you may have learned that the primary color are Blue, Red, and Yellow, but is that the right model of color for how we perceive color and light in the real world? The short answer is no.
This blog post explores the differences between digital color and paint pigment. It covers traditional and modern subtractive primaries, additive primaries, and the hue-value relationship.
Table of Contents
IntroductionModels for talking about colors The traditional subtractive primariesThe modern subtractive primariesThe additive primariesThe Hue-Value RelationshipColor vs. Saturation vs. ValueResources
Models for talking about colors
The traditional subtractive primaries
subtractive refers to that colors absorb certain colors and reflect others
colors like cyan and magenta are impossible to mix with red, blue, and yellow.
truthfully these colors are completely arbitrary → they are based off of pigment. back in the day when we made pigment out of rocks, trees, flowers, etc. and because of these limitations red blue and yellow became the “primary” colors due to accessibility of pigment
The modern subtractive primaries
This is what your color printer uses to print.
The additive primaries
derided from true scientific theory because they deal with true combinations of light and how they produce the light we perceive
The Hue-Value Relationship
What do you think these colors are going to look like when we convert them into grey scale?
Click here to toggle the answer
ANSWER: B
your brain is confusing the saturation of a color for a value. all 3 of these colors are at 100% saturation when in reality, the value is really dark.
This begs the question -
why do colors have inherent differences in value when you convert them to greyscale even though they’re all at 100% saturation?
Color vs. Saturation vs. Value
Breakdown of where the traditional three reach their most vibrant
