Textile Colour Mixing

There are two ways to mix colour – ‘additive’ and ‘subtractive’.
Additive colour is the mixture of coloured lights. Three primary colours of red, green and blue when mixed together in equal colours produce white light. Mixing the three additive primaries in differing amounts of coloured light can create any colour in the rainbow. Colour televisions use the principle of additive colour mixing.

In subtractive colour mixing the principle is exactly the opposite. The subtractive primary colours are cyan, yellow and magenta. When mixed together they subtract from the light producing black. When different pairs of the subtractive primaries are mixed, the colour red, green and blue are produced. These principles are used when we paint and in photography and colour printing.