RGB Color Space

Red, green, and blue are called the primary colors because by combining light of these three colors in different proportions, light of any color can be produced. The RGB color space encodes colors by specifying the amount of red, green, and blue light required to produce a given color.

The RGB color space closely corresponds to how color images are acquired by color video cameras and displayed by color monitors. Color video cameras separate the light from the scene into the red, green, and blue components and transmit each of these signals separately. Color display monitors accept separate red, green, and blue signals, then mix red, green, and blue light to reproduce the colors in the original scene.

Because of its close relationship to how color is recorded and displayed by video technology, the RGB color space is a very common way of encoding colors. One limitation of the RGB color space is that it is often difficult to relate a particular RGB value to how a color appears. For example, the color with a value of R-105, G-206, and B-102 is a pale green.