Alright, this is a crash course in basic colour theory. If you’re a game programmer, or web developer or anyone who will deal with colour at some point in his programming career, what you will read here is crucial. Let’s begin.
Colour models

You will most often deal with the RGB model, where red, green and blue are the primary colours. It’s an additive model. This is the traditional “adding” of colours together to produce new colours.
There’s also the CMYK model, referring to cyan, magenta, yellow and black. K is for key colour, and black was used. It’s also a subtractive model. It’s subtractive because mixing colours together prevents certain wavelengths of light from being reflected.
[Short digression]
When you see a blue cup, what happens is only wavelengths corresponding to the blue colour is reflected off the surface of the cup. All other wavelengths are absorbed by the cup. That’s why you see blue. You might find it helpful to review your science lessons…
[End digression]
Then there’s the HSV model, referring to hue, saturation and value. Some similar notations are HSL, HSI and HSB. The difference is lightness (HSL), intensity (HSI), and brightness (HSB). There are some differences between them. We’ll concentrate on HSV here, and you’re encouraged to read up on the others.
Hue refers to the colour itself. Saturation refers to “how much” of that colour. And value is “how light” is that colour. It’s a bit hard to explain. I’ll show how this looks like in a section further down.
What’s the deal with red, YELLOW and blue then?

If I understand it correctly, it’s basically a misunderstanding (read more about RGB and RYB). RGB is used in light-related situations, such as television and computer monitors.
The RYB model is a simplification of the CMYK model (as I understand it). It’s not easy for mortals to associate cyan with blue, or magenta with red… Can you imagine teaching a 6 year old to say “magenta” instead of “red”?
The RYB (or CMYK) model is used in pigment-related situations, such as printing and painting. Our water colour and crayon art classes fall into this.
Why do you need to know this? Normally, you don’t need to. Unless you’re writing code for a printer driver. Then this difference is crucial to your understanding.

Original Article - http://polymathprogrammer.com/2008/08/04/basic-colour-theory-for-programmers/

africanaija:
Alright, this is a crash course in basic colour theory. If you’re a game programmer, or web developer or anyone who will deal with colour at some point in his programming career, what you will read here is crucial. Let’s begin.
Colour models

You will most often deal with the RGB model, where red, green and blue are the primary colours. It’s an additive model. This is the traditional “adding” of colours together to produce new colours.
There’s also the CMYK model, referring to cyan, magenta, yellow and black. K is for key colour, and black was used. It’s also a subtractive model. It’s subtractive because mixing colours together prevents certain wavelengths of light from being reflected.
[Short digression]
When you see a blue cup, what happens is only wavelengths corresponding to the blue colour is reflected off the surface of the cup. All other wavelengths are absorbed by the cup. That’s why you see blue. You might find it helpful to review your science lessons…
[End digression]
Then there’s the HSV model, referring to hue, saturation and value. Some similar notations are HSL, HSI and HSB. The difference is lightness (HSL), intensity (HSI), and brightness (HSB). There are some differences between them. We’ll concentrate on HSV here, and you’re encouraged to read up on the others.
Hue refers to the colour itself. Saturation refers to “how much” of that colour. And value is “how light” is that colour. It’s a bit hard to explain. I’ll show how this looks like in a section further down.
What’s the deal with red, YELLOW and blue then?

If I understand it correctly, it’s basically a misunderstanding (read more about RGB and RYB). RGB is used in light-related situations, such as television and computer monitors.
The RYB model is a simplification of the CMYK model (as I understand it). It’s not easy for mortals to associate cyan with blue, or magenta with red… Can you imagine teaching a 6 year old to say “magenta” instead of “red”?
The RYB (or CMYK) model is used in pigment-related situations, such as printing and painting. Our water colour and crayon art classes fall into this.
Why do you need to know this? Normally, you don’t need to. Unless you’re writing code for a printer driver. Then this difference is crucial to your understanding.

Original Article - http://polymathprogrammer.com/2008/08/04/basic-colour-theory-for-programmers/

Thanks Boss
Noted!