Three Primary Colors of Light

The three primary colors of light (光の三原色) can be sensed by human photoreceptors. They are red, blue, and green. They are called the three primary colors because they are the colors that are mixed together to create other colors.

Overview

The three primary colors of light (光の三原色, hikari no sangenshoku) refer mainly to red, green, and blue. It is generally referred to as RGB (red, green, blue).

These three colors can represent almost any color through additive color mixing.

For example, red and green make yellow, green and blue make cyan (similar to light blue), blue and red make magenta (similar to pink or purple), and all together make white.

Without any color, the color is black.

When we speak of RGB, we sometimes refer specifically to this way of expressing colors.