You are seeing the light it is reflecting. It is reflecting sunlight or electric light, both of which are ‘white’. Yet you can see many different colours. You must remember that white light is really a mixture of colours. The white part of the page is reflecting all the colours of the spectrum. But the printed words are reflecting almost no light. Black is the absence of colour, or light. The colours we see depend on the type of light being reflected. Red, green and blue are known as the primary light colours. It is possible to make any colour by mixing different amounts of these colours.
You can see some of the effects of mixing the primary colours of light. Red and green together make yellow light; green and blue combine to make cyan; and blue and red give magenta. Any other colour can be produced by varying the amounts of each of the primary colours. Red, blue and green together make white.
MIXING COLOURED PAINT
Red, blue and yellow are said to be the primary colours of paint. Blue paint reflects green light as well as blue. Yellow paint reflects green and red light. A mixture of blue and yellow paint appears green since this is the only colour reflected by both. An artist can mix paints to produce any colour.
Picture Credit : Google