Introduction to Color 1

Color is a part of the electromagnetic spectrum and has always existed, although Sir Isaac Newton provided the first explanation of color in 1666. Newton passed a narrow beam of sunlight through a prism located in a dark room. Of course the visible spectrum (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet) was displayed on the white screen.

People already knew that light passed through a prism would show a rainbow or visible spectrum, but Newton’s experiments showed that different colors are bent through different angles. Newton also thought all colors can be found in white light, so he passed the light through a second prism. All the visible colors changed back to white light. Light is the only source of color.

The color of an object is seen because the object merely reflects, absorbs, and transmits one or more colors that make up light. The endless variety of color is caused by the interrelationship of three elements: Light, the source of color; the material and its response to color; and the eye, the perceiver of color. Colors made by combining blue, yellow, and red light are called additive; and they are formed by adding varying degrees of intensity and amounts of these three colors.

These primary colors of light are called cyan (blue-green), yellow, and magenta (blue-red).

Pigment color found in paint, dyes, or pigment molecules present in flowers, trees, and animals form ink. Absorbing, or subtracting makes the color, certain parts of the spectrum and reflecting or transmitting the parts that remain. Each pigment molecule seems to have its own distinct characteristic way of reflecting, absorbing, or transmitting certain wavelengths. Natural and manmade colors all follow the same natural laws.
 

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