Editing RGB color model (section)

{{Short description|Color model based on red, green and blue}}
{{Redirect|RGB}}
{{Distinguish|RBG}}
{{Use American English|date=November 2020}}

[[File:Barn grand tetons rgb separation.jpg|right|thumb|150px|Full color image along with its R, G, and B components]]
[[File:Additive colors.ogv|thumb|Additive color mixing demonstrated with CD covers used as [[beam splitter]]s]]
[[File:Venn diagram rgb.svg|thumb|A diagram demonstrating additive color with RGB]]

The '''RGB color model''' is an [[additive color|additive]] [[color model]]<ref name=":0" /> in which the [[red]], [[green]], and [[blue]] [[primary color]]s of light are added together in various ways to reproduce a broad array of [[color]]s. The name of the model comes from the initials of the three [[additive primary colors]], red, green, and blue.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Fairman |first1=Hugh S. |last2=Brill |first2=Michael H. |last3=Hemmendinger |first3=Henry |date=February 1997 |title=How the CIE 1931 color-matching functions were derived from Wright-Guild data |journal=Color Research & Application |volume=22 |issue=1 |pages=11–23 |doi=10.1002/(SICI)1520-6378(199702)22:1<11::AID-COL4>3.0.CO;2-7 |quote="The first of the resolutions offered to the 1931 meeting defined the color-matching functions of the soon-to-be-adopted standard observer in terms of Guild’s spectral primaries centered on wavelengths 435.8, 546.1, and 700nm. Guild approached the problem from the viewpoint of a standardization engineer. In his mind, the adopted primaries had to be producible with national-standardizing-laboratory accuracy. The first two wavelengths were mercury excitation lines, and the last named wavelength occurred at a location in the human vision system where the hue of spectral lights was unchanging with wavelength. Slight inaccuracy in production of the wavelength of this spectral primary in a visual colorimeter, it was reasoned, would introduce no error at all."}}</ref>

The main purpose of the RGB color model is for the sensing, representation, and display of images in electronic systems, such as televisions and computers, though it has also been used in conventional [[photography]] and [[Light-emitting diode#RGB systems|colored lighting]]. Before the [[electronic age]], the RGB color model already had a solid theory behind it, based in [[Trichromacy|human perception of colors]].

RGB is a ''device-dependent'' color model: different devices detect or reproduce a given RGB value differently, since the color elements (such as [[phosphor]]s or [[dye]]s) and their response to the individual red, green, and blue levels vary from manufacturer to manufacturer, or even in the same device over time. Thus an RGB value does not define the same ''color'' across devices without some kind of [[color management]].<ref>{{Cite web |last=GrantMeStrength |title=Device-Dependent Color Spaces - Win32 apps |url=https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/win32/wcs/device-dependent-color-spaces |access-date=2022-10-24 |website=learn.microsoft.com |date=30 December 2021 |language=en-us}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Crean, Buckley |title=Device Independent Color—Who Wants It? |url=https://www.imaging.org/site/PDFS/Papers/1997/RP-0-67/2398.pdf |journal=SPIE |volume=2171 |pages=267}}</ref>

Typical RGB [[Input device|input devices]] are color [[Professional video camera|TV and video cameras]], [[image scanner]]s, and [[digital camera]]s. Typical RGB [[Output device|output devices]] are TV sets of various technologies ([[cathode-ray tube|CRT]], [[LCD television|LCD]], [[plasma display|plasma]], [[OLED]], [[quantum dot display|quantum dots]], etc.), [[computer display|computer]] and [[mobile phone]] displays, [[video projector]]s, multicolor [[light-emitting diode|LED]] displays and large screens such as the [[Jumbotron]]. [[Printer (computing)|Color printers]], on the other hand, are not RGB devices, but [[subtractive color]] devices typically using the [[CMYK color model]].