Editing Color (section)

=== Subtractive coloring<span class="anchor" id="Subtractive colouring"></span> ===
[[File:SubtractiveColor.svg|thumb|Subtractive color mixing: combining yellow and magenta yields red; combining all three primary colors together yields black]]

[[Subtractive color]]ing uses dyes, inks, pigments, or filters to absorb some wavelengths of light and not others.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Molecular Expressions Microscopy Primer: Physics of Light and Color – Introduction to the Primary Colors |url=https://micro.magnet.fsu.edu/primer/lightandcolor/primarycolorsintro.html |access-date=2023-12-08 |website=micro.magnet.fsu.edu}}</ref> The color that a surface displays comes from the parts of the visible spectrum that are not absorbed and therefore remain visible. Without pigments or dye, fabric fibers, paint base and paper are usually made of particles that scatter white light (all colors) well in all directions. When a pigment or ink is added, wavelengths are absorbed or "subtracted" from white light, so light of another color reaches the eye.

If the light is not a pure white source (the case of nearly all forms of artificial lighting), the resulting spectrum will appear a slightly different color. [[Red]] paint, viewed under [[blue]] light, may appear [[black]]. Red paint is red because it scatters only the red components of the spectrum. If red paint is illuminated by blue light, it will be absorbed by the red paint, creating the appearance of a black object.

The subtractive model also predicts the color resulting from a mixture of paints, or similar medium such as fabric dye, whether applied in layers or mixed together prior to application. In the case of paint mixed before application, incident light interacts with many different pigment particles at various depths inside the paint layer before emerging.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Williamson |first1=Samuel J |title=Light and Color in Nature and Art |last2=Cummins |first2=Herman Z |date=1983 |publisher=John Wiley & Sons, Inc. |isbn=0-471-08374-7 |location=New York |pages=28–30 |quote="Thus subtractive color mixing laws that successfully describe how light is altered by nonspectral filters also describes how light is altered by pigments."}}</ref>