In primary school you learned the primary colors as red, blue and yellow. These are (along with black) indeed the primary colors when using pigments/dyes/whatever on a white substance (paper, fabric, whatever) to create all other colors. (known as CMYK for Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, blacK)
When you're talking light sources, however, the primary colors are red blue and green, and with all of the lights off, you have black. All of the lights on produces white (as odd as it sounds). This is why white light can be split by a prism into a rainbow of colors. (known as RGB for Red Green Blue, think html hex numbers)
If you look really close at a white area on your monitor (though it's easier with the larger pixels on a tv) you will see 3 little dots of red blue and green for each pixel.
White == RGB (all light sources on), yellow == RG, cyan (aquamarine type color) == BG and magenta (bright purpleish) == RB. black == nothing (all light sources off).
Make sense? |
