Understanding RGB Color

Red + Green + Blue = RGB
+ + =

RGB is one of the two color modes you'll deal with most often
when preparing images for the Web. (The other mode is indexed color.)

RGB is an additive color space.

White is the presence of all colors.

Black is the absence of all colors.

In RGB mode, pixels are assigned values directly,
(unlike indexed color mode).

The RGB mode assigns 24 bits of data to each pixel.
That allows for 16,777,216 different colors!

An RGB image may be thought of as three grayscale images.
One image represents red values.
One image represents green values.
One image represents blue values.
The three images, or channels, combine to produce millions of colors.

RGB Color Demo from Editor B on Vimeo.

(Also on YouTube.)

TV and computer monitors use the RGB model to produce images.
It's based on emitted light.

Colors work differently when seen through reflected light.
(See CMYK)


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