Pointillism Pointillism is analogous to the four-color CMYK printing process used by some color printers and large presses that place dots of Cyan (blue), Magenta (red), Yellow, and Key (black). Televisions and computer monitors use a similar technique to represent image colors using Red, Green, and Blue (RGB) colors. If red, blue, and green light (the additive primaries) are mixed, the result is something close to white light (see Prism (optics)). Painting is inherently subtractive, but Pointillist colors often seem brighter than typical mixed subtractive colors. This may be partly because subtractive mixing of the pigments is avoided, and partly because
Secondary color out to be good primary colors for pigments, the mixing of which subtracts light. Pigments, such as inks and paint, display color by absorbing some wavelengths of light and reflecting the remainder. When pigments are combined, they absorb the combination of their colors, and reflect less. Thus, combining pigments results in a darker color. This is called subtractive color-mixing, as mixing pigments subtracts wavelengths from the light that is reflected. The mixture of equal amounts of these colors produce the secondary colors red, blue, and "lime" green (the RGB primary colors of light), as follows: That is, the primary and