Tertiary color

A tertiary color or quaternary color is a made by mixing either one color with one, or two secondary colors, in a given such as RGB and CMYK (more modern) or RYB (traditional).

Tertiary colors are a combination of full saturation of one primary color plus half saturation of another primary color and none of a third primary color.

Tertiary colors have specific names, one set of names for the RGB color wheel and a different set of names and colors for the RYB color wheel. These names are shown below.

Brown and grey colors can be made by mixing complementary colors.

RGB or CMY primary, secondary, and tertiary colors

Primary, secondary, and tertiary colors of the RGB color wheel

The primary colors in an RGB color wheel are red, green, and blue, because these are the three additive colors—the primary colors of light. The secondary colors in an RGB color wheel are cyan, magenta, and yellow because these are the three subtractive colors—the primary colors of pigment.

The tertiary color names used in the descriptions of RGB (or equivalently CMYK) systems are shown below.

cyan	(●)	+	blue	(●)	=	azure	(●)
blue	(●)	+	magenta	(●)	=	violet	(●)
magenta	(●)	+	red	(●)	=	rose	(●)
red	(●)	+	yellow	(●)	=	orange	(●)
yellow	(●)	+	green	(●)	=	chartreuse	(●)
green	(●)	+	cyan	(●)	=	spring green	(●)

Traditional painting (RYB)

A traditional RYB color wheel.

The primary colors in an RYB color wheel are red, yellow, and blue. The secondary colors — orange, green, and purple — are made by combining the primary colors

In the red–yellow–blue system as used in traditional painting and interior design, tertiary colors are typically named by combining the names of the adjacent primary and secondary.

red	(●)	orange	(●)	=	vermilion (red-orange)	(●)
orange	(●)	yellow	(●)	=	amber (yellow-orange)	(●)
yellow	(●)	green	(●)	=	chartreuse (yellow-green)	(●)
green	(●)	blue	(●)	=	teal (blue-green)	(●)
blue	(●)	purple	(●)	=	violet (blue-purple)	(●)
purple	(●)	red	(●)	=	magenta (red-purple)	(●)

Tertiary- and quaternary-color terms

The terms for the RYB tertiary colors are not set. For the six RYB hues intermediate between the RYB primary and secondary colors, the names amber (yellow–orange), vermilion/cinnabar (red–orange), magenta (red–purple), violet (blue–purple), teal (blue-green), and chartreuse (yellow–green) are commonly found. The names for the twelve quaternary colors are more variable, if they exist at all, though indigo and scarlet are standard for blue–violet and red–vermilion.

In another sense, a tertiary color is obtained by mixing secondary-colored pigments. These three colors are russet (orange–purple), slate (purple–green), and citron (green–orange), with the corresponding three quaternary colors plum (russet–slate), sage (slate–citron), buff (citron–russet) (with olive sometimes used for either slate or citron). Beyond that are shades of grey (blue grey and brown greys), which approach but never quite reach black.

The RYB color terminology outlined above and in the color samples shown below is ultimately derived from an 1835 book called "Chromatography", an analysis of the RYB color wheel by George Field, a chemist who specialized in pigments and dyes.

RYB colors produced by mixing equal amounts of secondary and subsequent colors

Secondary    yellow   orange   red   purple   blue   green   yellow

Tertiary    orange   russet   purple   slate   green   citron   orange

Quaternary    russet   plum   slate   sage   citron   buff   russet

Quinary    plum   blue grey   sage   khaki   buff   grey brown   plum

RYB and CMY colors produced by mixing proportional amounts of primary colors

Tertiary RYB        yellow   amber   orange   vermilion   red   magenta   purple   violet   blue   teal   green   chartreuse   yellow

Quaternary RYB        vermilion   scarlet   red   crimson   magenta   aubergine   purple   amethyst   violet   indigo   blue   turquoise   teal   viridian   green   apple green   chartreuse

Tertiary CMY   yellow   orange   red   rose   magenta   violet   blue   azure   cyan   spring green   green   chartreuse   yellow

Comparison of RGB and RYB color wheels

Unlike the RGB (CMY) color wheel, the RYB color wheel has no scientific basis. The RYB color wheel was invented centuries before the 1890s, when it was found by experiment that magenta, yellow, and cyan are the primary colors of pigment, not red, yellow, and blue.

The RGB (CMY) color wheel has largely replaced the traditional RYB color wheel because it is possible to display much brighter and more saturated colors using the primary and secondary colors of the RGB (CMY) color wheel. In the terminology of color theory, RGB color space (CMY color space) has a much larger color gamut than RYB color space.

See also

• Color wheel
• Color theory