| Red | Yellow | Blue | Orange | Green | Violet | Magenta | Cyan | White | Black | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Red | ||||||||||
| Yellow | ||||||||||
| Blue | ||||||||||
| Orange | ||||||||||
| Green | ||||||||||
| Violet | ||||||||||
| Magenta | ||||||||||
| Cyan | ||||||||||
| White | ||||||||||
| Black |
The ten paints are stand-in colors, not a brand. Mixes come from a pigment model; real tubes land nearby, not on exactly the same color. See the ten paints and the model.
Common pairs, in paint and in light
Paint and light mix in opposite directions. Paint absorbs light, so mixing paints usually ends up darker than the lighter of the two. Lights add up, so overlapping two colored lights gets brighter. The same two colors can therefore give two very different answers.
| Colors | Mixed as paint, equal parts | Overlapped as two lights |
|---|---|---|
| Blue + Yellow | #679F44 | #FADEA2 |
| Red + Blue | #502F40 | #D248A6 |
| Red + Yellow | #F15C2F | #FFB12C |
| Red + Green | #5E3F3B | #D4894F |
| Blue + Green | #21674E | #3991AA |
| Blue + Orange | #5D7639 | #F498A3 |
| Yellow + Violet | #B68C42 | #FFD683 |
| Green + Violet | #3F594C | #668B90 |
| Orange + Green | #648C32 | #F5BB48 |
| Red + White | #F56275 | #FFCCC9 |
| Blue + White | #73A6E1 | #E2E5FF |
| Black + White | #A4A4A3 | #F6F6F1 |
The three lights of a screen
Phones and monitors build every color from red, green and blue lamps. Two lamps at full give the three light secondaries, and all three give white.
| Lamps at full | Result |
|---|---|
| Red light + Green light | #FFFF00 |
| Green light + Blue light | #00FFFF |
| Red light + Blue light | #FF00FF |
| Red light + Green light + Blue light | #FFFFFF |
Secondary and tertiary colors
Two primaries make a secondary color, and a primary with its neighboring secondary makes a tertiary one. See all of them in paint and in light, with the three sets of primaries side by side.
What colors make…
One page per color: the closest paint mixes, the lamp levels a screen uses, and the color wheel partners with the rule behind each one.