Additive Primaries; Subtractive Primaries - Oki OKIPAGE 8c Colour Manual

Additive primaries

Video technology such as computer monitors and television
screens use the additive model. The additive primaries are
Red, Green and Blue (RGB). Starting from black (lack of
colour) and adding red, green and blue in equal quantities
will generate shades of grey with white being generated with
full, balanced intensities of all three. Mixing the three colours
in different quantities will generate intermediate colours.
standard dot display
8
Trinitron™ display

Subtractive primaries

Cyan, Magenta and Yellow (CMY) are known as the
subtractive primaries and are commonly used in printing
processes. In this case we start with a white background
(usually paper) and add translucent inks of cyan, magenta
and yellow to subtract certain wavelengths of light. For
example, cyan ink on a page appears to be this colour because
the ink removes components of red light and reflects green
and blue, which we perceive as cyan.
Traditional CMYK print
OKIPAGE 8c