Red Green Blue

(R-G-B)

A form of video using the three individual primary colors (red, green, and blue) to form a color image (e.g., an RGB monitor has three color guns). The RGB term has also come to just mean color, as in RGB monitor as opposed to monochrome monitor.

A color monitor uses a color scheme known as '''additive color'''. The three primary colors in this system are red, green, and blue. Color on a monitor is obtained by illuminating phosphors that glow in the proper primary color combinations when hit by an electron beam. The electron beam scans the face of the monitor through a mask which directs the beam to specific phosphors (the phosphors are laid out in either dot groups known as triads or side-by-side thin lines). To the eye, each triad (or line trio) appears as a single dot. The term additive is used because where no beam falls there is black and where all colors are lit together there is white. Where two colors overlap various intermediate colors are created. The figure below shows this relationship.

Different beam intensities vary the color intensity which translates to more color varieties. Each pixel in the display is defined by a specific digital code that defines the intensity of each primary color that has to be applied to the triad or line trio representing that pixel (pixels and triads are usually not a one-to-one match on the screen leading to further compromise).

More Information

• Image Formats
• Understanding Color
• Describing Color
• and Understanding Color