Being a student of Graphic Design at Penn State, I am constantly using both additive and subtractive color mixing techniques when creating my projects. The medium required for each project determines the type of color mixing used. Additive color mixing is mostly used on computer and television monitors. This process mixes colors of light to produce the image we see on a screen or other electronic device. The three primary colors of this process are red, green, and blue. These colors mix together to form secondary colors which are cyan, magenta, and yellow. When all three primary light colors are present, the result is white, and when all light is absent the result is black. These three colors set the foundation for the endless combinations of colors seen on a computer screen everyday. Subtractive color mixing is an extremely different process and requires a different medium to create the spectrum of colors. This process combines different colors of ink or paint, using printers or manual labor, to create images we see on paper or canvases. The three primary colors of this process are cyan, magenta, and yellow, which are commonly found in ink cartridges. The three secondary colors of subtractive color mixing are red, green, and blue. These colors combine to produce the wide variety of pigments seen in printed and painted designs.
One important restriction regarding subtractive color mixing is that when mixing the different pigments, the colors are not perfectly created, because there is a portion of light from the newly subtracted color that is reflected. This creates a slightly darker and desaturated pigment when compared to the same color in the additive color spectrum. Also, some printers unable to create certain colors that are seen on a computer screen. This can cause issues when transferring projects from additive color to subtractive color to print out a design. Unfortunately during this past semester, I learned this lesson the hard way when working on one of my projects.
My photos were uploaded and my design was perfected, just in time for the deadline of my second project. I felt confident with the final design and was excited to see a printed out version of the piece. I went to Staples to print out my final 15 by 20 inch poster and my sense of accomplishment was crushed. The colors of the poster were dull and slightly off hue, as opposed to the vibrant colors I saw on my computer screen. I was confused and tried to understand possible reasons for the problem.
Fortunately, in the same week this had occurred, we were learning about additive and subtractive color in our perception class. Once I realized the two different color modes, I understood where I went wrong; my project was constructed and edited in the RGB color mode in Photoshop. This meant that the program was using the additive color mixing process to create the colors I saw on my screen; however, printers use the subtractive color mixing process to create the tangible designs. As I stated above, some of the colors that are seen in the additive color spectrum are not produced or poorly reproduced in the subtractive color spectrum. Therefore, the printer desaturated the colors I saw on my computer screen, producing a dull version of my project. I was forced to recreate my design in the correct color mode in Photoshop to allow for optimum printing results. If I had known how different my project would have resulted, I would have paid more attention to color mode I used in Photoshop. The difference between additive and subtractive color is one of the most important lessons to learn as a Graphic Design student, and I will use this knowledge in my future projects.