Additive vs Subtractive Color — differences, a side-by-side table, and when to use each.
Mix red and green light and you get yellow; mix red and green paint and you get mud. That's not a trick — light and pigment mix by opposite rules. Additive mixing adds wavelengths together; subtractive mixing removes them. Every color model you use descends from one of the two.
Additive color mixing combines emitted light. Start from darkness and add wavelengths: red + green = yellow, all three primaries (red, green, blue) at full strength = white. Screens, stage lighting and projectors are additive — which is why RGB is the native model of every display.
Subtractive mixing combines materials that absorb light. Start from white (a lit surface) and each pigment subtracts wavelengths: what's left is the color you see. Its primaries are cyan, magenta and yellow; mixed together they absorb nearly everything, approaching black. Paint, dyes and CMYK printing are subtractive.
| Additive (light) | Subtractive (pigment) | |
|---|---|---|
| Mixes | Emitted light | Reflected light (pigments/inks) |
| Primaries | Red, Green, Blue | Cyan, Magenta, Yellow |
| All primaries = | White | Near-black (K added in print) |
| Starts from | Black (no light) | White (blank surface) |
| Where it lives | Screens, lighting, cameras | Paint, print, textiles |
| Model families | RGB → HEX, HSL, HSV | CMY → CMYK |
Think additively whenever the destination is a screen — which for most digital work is always. RGB (and its notations HEX, HSL, OKLCH) describes light directly, so on-screen mixing, blending and gradients follow additive logic.
Think subtractively when pigment or ink is involved: mixing paint, choosing print colors, dyeing fabric. It explains everyday surprises — why mixed paints darken, why printed colors look duller than the screen, and why print needs a separate black ink.