

Color space primaries are precisely defined and empirically rooted in psychophysical colorimetry experiments which are foundational for understanding color vision.

Primary colors can also be conceptual (not necessarily real), either as additive mathematical elements of a color space or as irreducible phenomenological categories in domains such as psychology and philosophy. Perceptions associated with a given combination of primary colors can be predicted by an appropriate mixing model (e.g., additive, subtractive) that reflects the physics of how light interacts with physical media, and ultimately the retina. This is the essential method used to create the perception of a broad range of colors in, e.g., electronic displays, color printing, and paintings. Other electronic color display technologies ( LCD, Plasma display, OLED) have analogous sets of primaries with different emission spectra.Ī set of primary colors or primary colours (see spelling differences) consists of colorants or colored lights that can be mixed in varying amounts to produce a gamut of colors. The emission spectra of the three phosphors that define the additive primary colors of a CRT color video display.
