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Primary color
A set of primary colors is, most tangibly, a set of
real physical pigmented media or colored lights that
can be combined in varying amounts to produce a
"gamut" of colors. This is the essential method used
in applications that are intended to elicit the
perception of diverse sets of color, e.g. electronic
displays, color printing, and paintings. Perceptions
associated with a given combination of primary
colors are predicted by applying the appropriate
mixing model (additive, subtractive, additive
averaging etc.) that embodies the underlying physics The emission spectra of the three phosphors that define the
addi ve primary colors of a CRT color video display. Other
of how light interacts with the media and ultimately
electronic color display technologies (LCD, Plasma display, OLED)
the retina.
have analogous sets of primaries with different emission spectra.

Primary colors can also be conceptual, either as

additive mathematical elements of a color space or
as irreducible phenomenological categories in domains such as psychology and philosophy.[1] Color-space primaries are
precisely defined and empirically rooted in psychophysical color matching experiments which are foundational for
understanding color vision. Primaries of some color spaces are complete (that is, all visible colors are described in terms of
their weighted sums with nonnegative weights) but necessarily imaginary[2] (that is, there is no plausible way the those
primary colors could be represented physically, or perceived). Describing primary colors from a phenomenological
perspective is difficult to do succinctly, but phenomenological accounts, such as the psychological primaries,[3] have led to
practically useful insights.

All sets of real and color-space primaries are arbitrary, in the sense that there is no one set of primaries that can be
considered the canonical set. Primary pigments or light sources selected for a given application on the basis of subjective
preferences as well as practical factors such as cost, stability, availability etc. Color-space primaries can be subjected to
meaningful one-to-one transformations so that the transformed space is still complete and each color is specified with a
unique sum.

Elementary art education materials,[4] dictionaries,[5][6] and electronic search engines[7] often define primary colors
effectively as conceptual colors (generally red, yellow, and blue; or red, green, and blue) that can be used to mix "all" other
colors and often go further and suggest that these conceptual colors correspond to specific hues and precise wavelengths.
Such sources do not present a coherent, consistent definition of primary colors since real primaries cannot be complete.[8]

Contents
Addi ve mixing of light
Subtrac ve mixing of ink layers
Mixing paints in limited pale es
Color-space primaries
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Psychological primaries
History
See also
References

Additive mixing of light

The perception elicited by multiple light sources co-
stimulating the same area of the retina is additive, i.e.,
predicted via summing the spectral power distributions
or tristimulus values of the individual light sources
(assuming a color matching context). For example, a
purple spotlight on a dark background could be matched
with coincident blue and red spotlights that are both
dimmer than the purple spotlight. If the intensity of the
purple spotlight was doubled it could be matched by
doubling the intensities of both the red and blue
spotlights that matched the original purple. The
principles of additive color mixing are embodied in A photograph of the red, green, and blue elements (subpixels)
Grassmann's laws.[9] of an LCD. Addi ve mixing explains how light from these
colored elements can be used for photorealis c color image
Additive mixing of coincident spot lights was applied in reproduc on.
the experiments used to derive the CIE 1931 colorspace.
The original monochromatic primaries of the (arbitrary)
wavelengths of 435.8 nm (violet), 546.1 nm (green), and 700 nm (red) were used in this application due to the
convenience they afforded to the experimental work.[10]

Red, green, and blue light are the ideal primaries for additive color mixing since primary lights with those hues provide the
largest triangular chromaticity gamuts. Small red, green, and blue elements in electronic displays mix additively from an
appropriate viewing distance to synthesize compelling colored images.[11]

The exact colors chosen for additive primaries are a technological compromise between the available phosphors (including
considerations such as cost and power usage) and the need for large chromaticity gamut. The ITU-R BT.709-5/sRGB
primaries are typical.

Subtractive mixing of ink layers

The subtractive color mixing model predicts the spectral power distributions of light filtered through overlaid partially
absorbing materials on a reflecting or transparent surface. Each layer partially absorbs some wavelengths of light from the
illumination spectrum while letting others pass through multiplicatively, resulting in a colored appearance. Overlapping
layers of ink in printing mix subtractively over reflecting white paper in this way to generate photorealistic color images.
The typical number of inks in such a printing process ranges from 3 to 6 (e.g., CMYK process, Pantone hexachrome). In
general, using fewer inks as primaries results in more economical printing but using more may result in better color
reproduction.

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Cyan, magenta, and yellow are good subtractive

primaries in that the spectral power distributions of light
reflected from idealized inks can be combined for the
largest chromaticity gamuts.[12] An additional key ink
(shorthand for the key printing plate that impressed the
artistic detail of an image, usually black[13]) is also
usually used since it is difficult to mix a dark enough
black ink using the other three inks. Before the color
names cyan and magenta were in common use, these
primaries were often known as blue and red,
respectively, and their exact color has changed over time
with access to new pigments and technologies.[14]

A magnified representa on of small par ally overlapping spots

Mixing paints in limited of cyan, magenta, yellow, and key (black) hal ones in CMYK
process prin ng. Each row represents the pa ern of par ally
palettes overlapping ink "rose es" so that the pa erns would be
perceived as blue, green, and red when viewed on white paper
The color of light (i.e., the spectral power distribution) from a typical viewing distance. The overlapping ink layers mix
reflected from illuminated surfaces coated in paint subtrac vely while addi ve mixing predicts the color
mixes, slurries of pigment particles, is not well appearance from the light reflected from the rose es and white
approximated by a subtractive or additive mixing model. paper in between them.
Color predictions that incorporate light scattering effects
of pigment particles and paint layer thickness require
approaches based on the Kubleka–Munk[16] equations. Even such approaches
cannot predict the color of paint mixtures precisely since small variances in
particle size distribution, impurity concentrations etc. can be difficult to measure
but impart perceptible effects on the way light is reflected from the paint. Artists
typically rely on mixing experience and "recipes"[17] to mix desired colors from a
small initial set of primaries and do not use mathematical modelling.

There are hundreds of commercially available pigments for visual artists to use
and mix (in various media such as oil, watercolor, acrylic, and pastel). A common
approach is to use just a limited palette of primary pigments[18] (often between
four and eight) that can be physically mixed to any color that the artist desires in
the final work. There is no specific set of pigments that are primary colors, the
choice of pigments depends entirely on the artist's subjective preference of subject
A self-portrait by Anders Zorn
and style of art as well as material considerations like lightfastness and mixing
clearly showing a four pigment
heuristics. Contemporary classical realists have often advocated that a limited
pale e of what are thought to be
palette of white, red, yellow, and black pigment (often described as the "Zorn white, yellow ochre, red vermilion
palette") is sufficient for compelling work.[19] and black pigments.[15]

A chromaticity diagram can illustrate the gamut of different choices of primaries,

for example showing which colors are lost (and gained) if you use RGB for subtractive color mixing (instead of CMY).[20]

Color-space primaries

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A contemporary description of the color vision system provides an understanding of primary colors that is consistent with
modern color science. The human eye normally contains only three types of color photoreceptors, known as long-
wavelength (L), medium-wavelength (M), and short-wavelength (S) cone cells. These photoreceptor types respond to
different degrees across visible electromagnetic spectrum. The S cone response is generally assumed to be negligible at
long wavelengths greater than about 560 nm while the L and M cones respond across the entire visible spectrum.[21] The
LMS primaries are imaginary since there is no visible wavelength that stimulates only one type of cone (i.e., humans
cannot normally see a color that corresponds to pure L, M or S stimulation). The LMS primaries are complete since every
visible color can be mapped to a triplet specifying the coordinates in LMS color space.

Normalized cone spectral sensi vity curves

The L, M and S response curves (cone fundamentals) were deduced from color matching functions obtained from
controlled color matching experiments (e.g., CIE 1931) where observers matched the color of a surface illuminated by
monochromatic light with mixtures of three monochromatic primary lights illuminating a juxtaposed surface. Practical
applications generally use a canonical linear transformation of LMS space known as CIEXYZ. The X, Y, and Z primaries
are typically more useful since luminance (Y) is specified separately from a color's chromaticity. Any color space primaries
which can be mapped to physiologically relevant LMS primaries by a linear transformation are necessarily either
imaginary or incomplete or both. The color-matching context is always three dimensional (since LMS space is three
dimensional) but more general color appearance models like CIECAM02 describe color in six dimensions and can be used
to predict how colors appear under different viewing conditions.

Thus for trichromats like humans, we use three (or more) primaries for most general purposes.[22] Two primaries would be
unable to produce even some of the most common among the named colors. Adding a reasonable choice of third primary
can drastically increase the available gamut, while adding a fourth or fifth may increase the gamut but typically not by as
much.

Most placental mammals other than primates have only two types of color photoreceptor and are therefore dichromats, so
it is possible that certain combinations of just two primaries might cover some significant gamut relative to the range of
their color perception. Meanwhile, birds and marsupials have four color photoreceptors in their eyes, and hence are
tetrachromats. There is one scholarly report of a functional human tetrachromat.[23]
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The presence of photoreceptor cell types in an organism's eyes do not directly imply that they are being used to
functionally perceive color. Measuring functional spectral discrimination in non-human animals is challenging due to the
difficulty in performing psychophysical experiments on creatures with limited behavioral repertoires who cannot respond
using language. Limitations in the discriminative ability of shrimp having twelve distinct color photoreceptors have
demonstrated that having more cell types in itself need not always correlate with better functional color vision.[24]

Psychological primaries
The opponent process is a color theory that states that the human visual
system interprets information about color by processing signals from cones
and rods in an antagonistic manner. The theory states that every color can
be described as a mix along the three axes of red vs. green, blue vs. yellow
and white vs. black. The six colors from the pairs might be called
"psychological primary colors", because any other color could be described
in terms of some combination of these pairs. Although there is a great deal
of evidence for opponency in the form of neural mechanisms,[25] there is
currently no clear mapping of the psychological primaries to neural
substrates.[26] Approxima ons within the sRGB gamut to
the "aim colors" of the Natural Color
The three axes of the psychological primaries were applied by Richard S. System, a model based on the opponent
Hunter as the primaries for the colorspace ultimately known as CIELAB. process theory of color vision.

The Natural Color System is also directly inspired by the psychological

primaries.[27]

History
There are numerous competing primary colour systems throughout history. Scholars and scientists engaged in debate over
which hues best describe the primary color sensations of the eye.[28] Thomas Young proposed red, green, and violet as the
three primary colors, while James Clerk Maxwell favoured changing violet to blue. Hermann von Helmholtz proposed "a
slightly purplish red, a vegetation-green, slightly yellowish, and an ultramarine-blue" as a trio.[29] In modern
understanding, human cone cells do not correspond precisely to a specific set of primary colors, as each cone type
responds to a relatively broad range of wavelengths.

See also
Color vision

References
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