What is the difference between the primary colors of light and primary colors of paint?

Answer 1

The three primary colours in painting are Red, Yellow & Blue.

The secondary colours are the result of a mixture of two of the primary colours: Red & Blue - Purple; Red & Yellow - Orange; and Blue & Yellow - Green.

Answer 2

The primary colours of light are red, green and blue. The primary colours of paint are red, blue and yellow.

The primary colours of paint are in fact the secondary colour of light:

Red + Blue Light = Magenta (light purple)

Red + Green Light = Yellow

Blue + Green Light = Cyan (light blue)

The colours Magenta, Cyan and Yellow look similar to Red, Blue and Yellow. This is why a printer uses these three colours of ink.

Answer 3

Light includes all colors of the spectrum. Light passing through a prism (or water vapors, as in a rainbow) will split into each of the colors. So when you combine those colors together, the resulting color is white.

To understand why paint colors appear the colors they do, you must remember that the eye sees only the colors of the spectrum which are reflected from that paint. So when you see red paint, you're really seeing only the red reflected light - while the other colors of the spectrum are absorbed. Blue paint reflects only the blue spectrum. White paint reflects all the colors of the spectrum. Black paint reflects none.

So the color black, therefore, is just the absence of light.

By the way, if you combine all the colors of paint, it will not result in black - only a muddy grayish-brown.