Trichromie

Trichromie is a photographic and printing process that reproduces images using three primary colors. The principle behind trichromie is that the human eye can perceive all colors by mixing three fundamental colors: red, green, and blue (RGB). In photography, this is achieved by taking three separate images of a scene, each through a different color filter. One filter captures the red components, another the green, and the third the blue. These three images are then superimposed, either by projecting them onto a screen or by printing them using colored inks that correspond to the original filters.

In traditional trichromie printing, three inks are used: cyan (which absorbs red light), magenta (which absorbs green light), and yellow (which absorbs blue light). When these inks are combined in varying proportions, they can create a wide gamut of colors. This subtractive color mixing system is the basis for most color printing today. Early forms of trichromie, like Autochrome Lumière, used a screen made of dyed starch grains to achieve color separation and synthesis on a single photographic plate. Modern digital cameras and printers rely on similar principles, capturing and reproducing color information through red, green, and blue channels. The term trichromie emphasizes the reliance on three distinct color components for full-color reproduction.