like if you wanted to mix paint to get a color from a computer would you do the opposite of what the RGB value is? I’m confused

like if I wanted to take the RBG code R:99, G: 66, B, 33 wouldn’t it look more lightful than if I mixed paint into 1 part blue, 2 part green, 3 part red? how would you paint a color code?

  • bampop@lemmy.world
    71·
    20 hours ago

    Pigment (or really anything that absorbs/blocks light) is subtractive color. CMY(K) is commonly used in printing, but you could just as easily use RGB pigments instead.

    There’s a reason CMYK is used for printing. How are you going to mix RGB pigments to get yellow? R+G won’t work. That’s because red ink filters out green and blue light, and green ink filters out red and blue light. So mixing the two you get something that filters out a bit of everything but especially blue, ie. brown. CMY are used for subtractive color mixing because each one filters out just one of the colors we see (C filters out R, M filters out G, Y filters out B) so you can mix them to get most of the gamut you need.

    • mic_check_one_two@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
      1·
      12 hours ago

      Sure, for printing. But printing isn’t the only form of subtractive color. Plenty of natural pigments exist. Those can be quantified with CMY or RGB values and then reproduced elsewhere, even though the natural pigment itself isn’t directly targeting those three wavelengths. My point is that subtractive color exists everywhere, using all sorts of natural color filtering mechanisms, and CMY is simply what printing uses.

      Hell, the blue morpho butterfly doesn’t even use pigment to turn blue. Its wings have tiny microscopic scales that trap light, and blue is the only wavelength short enough to get scattered by the rods and be reflected. It’s still subtractive color, but it isn’t using pigments at all.