What colors does MBC use and how?
Management by Color is based on the RGB (Red, Green, Blue) color model, which comprises the primary colors of red, green and blue.
Most people become familiar with a basic RGB model at an early age when they experiment with mixing crayon or paint colors. However, when these colors apply to "light", instead of to "pigment", they behave slightly differently. When mixed together, red, green and blue as pigment colors, (as found in ink or paint), will combine to make black. However, red, green and blue light mixed together equally create white, and the absence of any color creates black (or no light). The RGB light mixing model is used in television, projectors and computer monitors, and is additive in nature, where colors are added to each other in equal amounts to create white. Cyan, magenta and yellow are the secondary colors of red, green and blue, and further combine to create tertiary colors. The picture below demonstrates how the colors of light combine.
Additive color combining
For those familiar with the CMYK model, this is traditionally used for printing, and comprises cyan, magenta, yellow and black. This model is subtractive, as colors are removed to create white. The picture below demonstrates how subtractive colors combine.
Subtractive color combining
The Management by Color tool is based on the additive color model, so that the entire range of hues can be used, including white and black. Colors are traditionally represented on a color wheel, which is made up of 12 colors: primary colors (red, green and blue); secondary colors (cyan, magenta and yellow) and tertiary colors (which are one primary and one secondary color, such as orange and blue which combine to make purple).
Color Wheel
As black and white are not actual colors, they do not appear on the traditional color wheel, and for the purposes of our color tool, we'd like to provide the option of absence of color or maximum color. Therefore, if we map the colors to a cube, where red is the x-axis, green the y-axis and blue the z-axis, we can see how much of each of the red, green, and blue is included, and how each can vary between the minimum (fully dark) and maximum (full intensity). If all the colors are at an equal minimum the result is black, and if all the colors are at an equal maximum, the result is a white.
The RGB color model mapped to a cube. Values increase along the x-axis (red), y-axis (green) and z-axis (blue).
The Management by Color tool uses the RGB color model mapped to a cube for easy visualisation of the intensity and comparison of colors of light, as well as the extremes of white and black.
