A secondary color is a

color Color (American English) or colour (British English) is the visual perceptual property deriving from the spectrum of light interacting with the photoreceptor cells of the eyes. Color categories and physical specifications of color are associ ...

made by mixing of two

primary color A set of primary colors or primary colours (see spelling differences) consists of colorants or colored lights that can be mixed in varying amounts to produce a gamut of colors. This is the essential method used to create the perception of a ...

s in a given

color space A color space is a specific organization of colors. In combination with color profiling supported by various physical devices, it supports reproducible representations of colorwhether such representation entails an analog or a digital represen ...

Additive secondaries

Light (RGB)

For the human eye, good primary colors of light are red,

green Green is the color between cyan and yellow on the visible spectrum. It is evoked by light which has a dominant wavelength of roughly 495570 nm. In subtractive color systems, used in painting and color printing, it is created by a combin ...

, and

blue Blue is one of the three primary colours in the RYB colour model (traditional colour theory), as well as in the RGB (additive) colour model. It lies between violet and cyan on the spectrum of visible light. The eye perceives blue when ...

. Combining lights of these colors produces a large range of visible colors. That is, the primary and secondary RGB colors (with secondary colors in boldface) are: Combining RGB colors means adding light (thus the term "additive color"), and the combinations are brighter. When all three primaries are combined in equal amounts, the result is

white White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no hue). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully reflect and scatter all the visible wavelengths of light. White ...

. The RGB secondary colors produced by the addition of light turn out to be good primary colors for pigments, the mixing of which subtracts light.

Subtractive secondaries

Pigments, such as inks and paint, display color by absorbing some wavelengths of light and reflecting the remainder. When pigments are combined, they absorb the combination of their colors, and reflect less. Thus, combining pigments results in a darker color. This is called subtractive color-mixing, as mixing pigments subtracts wavelengths from the light that is reflected.

Printing (CMYK)

The mixture of equal amounts of these colors produce the secondary colors red,

, and "lime" green (the RGB primary colors of light), as follows: That is, the primary and secondary CMY colors (with secondary colors in boldface) are: Ideally, combining three perfect primary colors in equal amounts would produce

black Black is a color which results from the absence or complete absorption of visible light. It is an achromatic color, without hue, like white and grey. It is often used symbolically or figuratively to represent darkness. Black and white ha ...

, but this is impossible to achieve in practice. Therefore a "key" pigment, usually black, is added to printing to produce dark shades more efficiently. This combination is referred to as

CMYK The CMYK color model (also known as process color, or four color) is a subtractive color model, based on the CMY color model, used in color printing, and is also used to describe the printing process itself. The abbreviation ''CMYK'' refers ...

, where K stands for Key.

Traditional painting (RYB)

Before the discovery of CMY, at least as far back as

Goethe Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (28 August 1749 – 22 March 1832) was a German poet, playwright, novelist, scientist, statesman, theatre director, and critic. His works include plays, poetry, literature, and aesthetic criticism, as well as tr ...

, the best primary colors were thought to be red,

yellow Yellow is the color between green and orange on the spectrum of light. It is evoked by light with a dominant wavelength of roughly 575585 nm. It is a primary color in subtractive color systems, used in painting or color printing. In th ...

, and

. Mixing these pigments in equal amounts produces orange,

, and

purple Purple is any of a variety of colors with hue between red and blue. In the RGB color model used in computer and television screens, purples are produced by mixing red and blue light. In the RYB color model historically used by painters ...

:Sometimes called violet. This model is commonly used in painting today. That is, the primary and secondary RYB colors (with secondary colors in boldface) are:RGB approximations of RYB tertiary colors, using cubic interpolation

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Secondary Color Color Secondary colors fr:Couleur dite complémentaire

Additive secondaries

Light (RGB)

Subtractive secondaries

Printing (CMYK)

Traditional painting (RYB)

See also

References