Mixing RGB Color Levels

As previously mentioned, RGB colors are a composite of red, green and blue. Every color in the RGB spectrum is composed of different levels for each of their red, green and blue components.

Different tones of gray are produced by having equal levels of red, green and blue. The darkness/lightness of the gray tone depends on how close to 0 or F all of the values are. A middle gray will result from the value #808080, as 80 is the midpoint of the level range. You can use this principle to produce a light version of any color. A light magenta (or pink) is merely a gray with equal extra levels of red and blue added to it, e.g. #FF80FF. A mint green can be represented as #CCFFCC. A steel blue could be shown as #CCCCDD.

Different colors result from mixing varying levels of red, green and blue. For example, orange is a dark version of yellow, but with more red in it than green. From this, you could estimate that a strong orange color is #FF9900. Use our Color Training Tool to learn how to recognise the varying levels of red, green and blue in a color.

Closely related, the CMYK color system carries on from the basic principles of RGB that have been discussed.





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