: In color theory, what are primary and secondary colors? I went through an article on color connotations and it did not explain why colors are grouped as primary and secondary so I don't know

@Kimberly620

This is very informative article on this
mobile.tutsplus.com/tutorials/mobile-design-tutorials/introduction-to-color-theory/

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@Tiffany317

Any three colors can be used as primary colors in a given color system (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Primary_color). For light, red, green and blue are usually used because they give the widest range of possible colors (gamut). For inks, cyan, magenta and yellow give the best results.

Equal parts of two of the primary colors and none of the third give you a secondary color. You can even define tertiary colors (equal parts of one primary and one secondary).

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@Holmes874

The primary colors are called primary because there's no way to create those colors from mixing other colors.

Secondary colors are created from the mixing of the primary.

Red + Blue = purple.

But Purple + green != blue.

As for how to use them, this is something google can easily help with. Google 'color theory' and you'll find all sorts of resources.

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@Vandalay110

In a nutshell, primaries are colors that are themselves. The secondary colors are constructed by mixing two primary colors.

Complementary colors are typically on opposite sides of a color wheel and are the ones, when mixed together, create gray. In the real world of color, few pigments are pure, so you usually get a brown.

When you mix all primary pigments, you get black. (With light, you get white.) Again, in the world of pigments you don't actually.

Any book that talks about meanings of color are selling you paper.

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