Additive color mixing: adding red to green yields yellow; adding yellow to blue yields white.

An additive color system involves light emitted directly from a source or illuminant of some sort. The additive reproduction process usually uses red, green and blue light to produce the other colors. See also RGB color model. Combining one of these additive primary colors with another in equal amounts produces the additive secondary colors cyan, magenta, and yellow. Combining all three primary lights (colors) in equal intensities produces white. Varying the luminosity of each light (color) eventually reveals the full gamut of those three lights (colors). Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... This article or section does not cite any references or sources. ... Red is any of a number of similar colors evoked by light consisting predominantly of the longest wavelengths of light discernible by the human eye, in the wavelength range of roughly 625–750 nm. ... Mossy, green fountain in Wattens, Austria. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... A representation of additive color mixing—In CRT based (analog electronics) television three color electron guns are used to stimulate such an arrangement of phosphorescent coatings of the glass, the resultant reemission of photons providing the image seen by the eye. ... A primary color is a color that cannot be created by mixing other colors in the gamut of a given color space. ... A secondary color is a color made by mixing two primary colors in a given color space. ... Cyan (from Greek κυανοs, meaning blue) may be used as the name of any of a number of a range of colors in the blue/green part of the spectrum. ... Magenta is a color made up of equal parts of red and blue light. ... A yellow Tulip. ... This article is about the color. ... Luminosity has different meanings in several different fields of science. ... In computer graphics, the gamut, or color gamut (pronounced ), is a certain complete subset of colors. ...

Results obtained when mixing additive colors are often counterintuitive for people accustomed to the more everyday subtractive color system of pigments, dyes, inks and other substances which present color to the eye by reflection rather than emission. Many will insist that red-blue-yellow are the "primary colors" in an absolute sense because no combination of other (subtractive) colors will produce them. However, in additive color, red + green = yellow and no simple combination will yield green. In this sense red-blue-green may have the truer claim to being absolute primaries, since additive light works with color directly from its originating source (light). Subtractive color mixing An 1877 color photo by Louis Ducos du Hauron, a French pioneer of color photography. ... Look up emission in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ...

Computer monitors and televisions are the most common application of additive color. Nineteen inch (48 cm) CRT computer monitor A computer display, monitor or screen is a computer peripheral device capable of showing still or moving images generated by a computer and processed by a graphics card. ...

It should be noted that additive color is a result of the way the eye detects color, and is not a property of light. There is a vast difference between yellow light, with a wavelength of approximately 580nm, and a mixture of red and green light. However, both stimulate our eyes in a similar manner, so we do not detect the difference. (see eye (cytology), color vision.) A human eye. ... A human eye. ... Color vision is the capacity of an organism or machine to distinguish objects based on the wavelengths (or frequencies) of the light they reflect or emit. ...

The first permanent color photograph, taken by James Clerk Maxwell in 1861.

James Clerk Maxwell is credited as being the father of additive color: He had the photographer Thomas Sutton photograph a tartan ribbon three times, first with a red, then green, then blue color filter over the lens. The three images were developed and then projected onto a screen with three different projectors, each equipped with the corresponding red, green, or blue color filter used to take its image. When brought into register, the three images formed a full color image, thus demonstrating the principles of additive color. Image File history File linksMetadata Download high-resolution version (831x1011, 145 KB) Summary Taken from A World History of Photography ISBN 0789203294 Tartan Ribbon, photograph taken by James Clerk Maxwell in 1861. ... Image File history File linksMetadata Download high-resolution version (831x1011, 145 KB) Summary Taken from A World History of Photography ISBN 0789203294 Tartan Ribbon, photograph taken by James Clerk Maxwell in 1861. ... James Clerk Maxwell (13 June 1831 – 5 November 1879) was a Scottish mathematician and theoretical physicist. ...

See also

• Subtractive color
• Color film (motion picture)
• James Clerk Maxwell
• Kinemacolor
• Prizma
• William Friese-Greene

Subtractive color mixing An 1877 color photo by Louis Ducos du Hauron, a French pioneer of color photography. ... 35 mm film frames from color film print (positive) with optical sound track (no digital sound tracks present). ... James Clerk Maxwell (13 June 1831 – 5 November 1879) was a Scottish mathematician and theoretical physicist. ... Kinemacolor was the first successful color motion picture process, used commercially from 1908 to 1916. ... The Prizma Color system was a technique of color motion picture photography, invented in 1913 by William Van Doren Kelley. ... William Friese-Greene (September 7, 1855–May 5, 1921) (born William Edward Green) was a portrait photographer and prolific inventor. ...

External links

• http://www.edinphoto.org.uk/1_P/1_photographers_maxwell.htm - Photos and stories from the James Clerk Maxwell Foundation.