3 ms·

RGB is intuitive for math adepts or for folks that can visualize the full RGB cube along 3-axis in their minds. The rest of us need to work with average-brain

RGB is intuitive for math adepts or for folks that can visualize the full RGB cube along 3-axis in their minds. The rest of us need to work with average-brain color systems such as HSL (or the even better but sadly not well supported HSB) with an acronym for colors at every 60° in the wheel. Hue: Young(60°-Yellow) Guys(120°-Green) Can(180°-Cyan) Be(240°-Blue) Messy(300°-Magenta) Rascals(0°/360°-Red) Saturation: From 0%-Dullard Gray to 100%-Eye Popping Full Color of Hue Lightness: From 0%-Black to 100%-White. Usually one fixes the Hue and then adjusts saturation/lightness to get the tints one needs. You can split hue even further at 30° intervals to get the some more standard named colors. 30°-Orange between 0°-Red and 60°-Yellow 90°-Chartreuse between 60°-Yellow and 120°-Green 150°-Spring Green between 120°-Green and 180°-Cyan 210°-Azure between 180°-Cyan and 240°-Blue 270°-Violet between 240°-Blue and 300°-Magenta 330°-Rose between 300°-Magenta and 360°-Red See https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/56/RGB_color_wheel.svg/1920px-RGB_color_wheel.svg.png https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/56/RG...

mock-possum 2y ago
You don’t need to know anything more about math to understand additive colour mixing. Colour computer screens use RGB - colour printers use CMYK. (K is ‘black’, which is not a primary or secondary colour, so we’ll ignore it for now.) They nest into eachother, with RGB being primary colours and CMY being secondary: R-y-G-c-B-m-R. Any kid that’s used fingerprints or water colours knows how to combine primary colours to get secondary colours. You know if you want red, then you do 100% red. You know if you want yellow, you do 50% red, 50% green. If you want orange, which is a more reddish yellow, you do 75% red, 25% green. Brown might be a little more complicated - but still, what is brown? Darker orange? Maybe 25% red, 15% green? Try it and see! (Also for black and white - again, any kid with a prism and a flashlight (or sunbeam) knows that white light is all colours together - red 100%, green 100%, blue 100%. The opposite of white is black, which is no light at all, which is just 0% across the board.) No math adeptety or cube visualization necessary, this is all elementary school children level stuff. You already know most of it.
- lenkite 2y ago
  Did you observe that in ALL your examples you have given only 2 colors at a time ? This is because it is extremely difficult to visualize 3 colors additively together. Doing it with trial and error and "try it and see" is painful. Too much wasted time. (Well..there ARE some people who are expert at mixing 3 colors - they visualize the full RGB cube and magically output 3-color permutations off the bat after looking into space...) Whereas, Hue in a 360° axis gives you a braindead-simple, direct color access - cycling across the color wheel with well-defined, named and representative colors at regular degree intervals. The 2D visualization of a circle is far easier. You grab your primary color - hue and then you adjust your saturation and lightness (which is across a simple, linear semantic axis) to get tones and shades. FAR more simpler than RGB to get an elegant color palette going. You can knock out a distinct color palette for a site using HSL in ~5-10mins. Use a color-contrast tool against text to check accessibility and then you never pay attention to color again.

mock-possum 2y ago

You don’t need to know anything more about math to understand additive colour mixing. Colour computer screens use RGB - colour printers use CMYK. (K is ‘black’, which is not a primary or secondary colour, so we’ll ignore it for now.) They nest into eachother, with RGB being primary colours and CMY being secondary: R-y-G-c-B-m-R. Any kid that’s used fingerprints or water colours knows how to combine primary colours to get secondary colours. You know if you want red, then you do 100% red. You know if you want yellow, you do 50% red, 50% green. If you want orange, which is a more reddish yellow, you do 75% red, 25% green. Brown might be a little more complicated - but still, what is brown? Darker orange? Maybe 25% red, 15% green? Try it and see! (Also for black and white - again, any kid with a prism and a flashlight (or sunbeam) knows that white light is all colours together - red 100%, green 100%, blue 100%. The opposite of white is black, which is no light at all, which is just 0% across the board.) No math adeptety or cube visualization necessary, this is all elementary school children level stuff. You already know most of it.

lenkite 2y ago
Did you observe that in ALL your examples you have given only 2 colors at a time ? This is because it is extremely difficult to visualize 3 colors additively together. Doing it with trial and error and "try it and see" is painful. Too much wasted time. (Well..there ARE some people who are expert at mixing 3 colors - they visualize the full RGB cube and magically output 3-color permutations off the bat after looking into space...) Whereas, Hue in a 360° axis gives you a braindead-simple, direct color access - cycling across the color wheel with well-defined, named and representative colors at regular degree intervals. The 2D visualization of a circle is far easier. You grab your primary color - hue and then you adjust your saturation and lightness (which is across a simple, linear semantic axis) to get tones and shades. FAR more simpler than RGB to get an elegant color palette going. You can knock out a distinct color palette for a site using HSL in ~5-10mins. Use a color-contrast tool against text to check accessibility and then you never pay attention to color again.