[ELI5] What would happen if instead of using just red, green and blue, we used more pixels colors, like yellow or white?

Question

[ELI5] What would happen if instead of using just red, green and blue, we used more pixels colors, like yellow or white?

In: Technology

Answer 1

Human color perception can be mapped out in a 2-D graph: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:CIE_1976_UCS.png

As an engineer, you’ll pick real-life materials that produce your 3 chosen primary colors (in real life). On the graph, you’ll plot the 3 points corresponding to your primary colors. You’ll connect those points with lines, to make a triangular “gamut.” The gamut encloses all possible colors that you can recreate from combinations of your 3 chosen primary colors.

So, there’s no need to have an extra “white” pixel, seeing as the “white” is already in your gamut.

Instead, you could consider searching new technologies to make very intense hues at the outer boundaries of the color graph, to allow a wider gamut.