primaarvärvist

Primaarvärvist is an Estonian term used in color theory to refer to colors that originate from primary colors in a given color model. The concept aligns with the English term primary color, but its exact interpretation depends on whether one uses additive color (light) or subtractive color (pigments).

In additive color systems, the primaarvärvid are red, green, and blue; their overlaps produce cyan, magenta, yellow, and white when all three are combined. In subtractive systems, traditional primaarvärvid in art education are red, blue, and yellow; modern printing commonly uses cyan, magenta, and yellow, with black added as an extra for depth. Primaarvärvid form the basis of a color wheel and the mixing that yields secondary and tertiary colors.

The term primaarvärvist is often used in Estonian teaching materials and design discussions to denote palettes built from primary colors, or to indicate relationships to the base colors in a model. However, many contexts simply use primaarvärvid to refer to primary colors themselves, while primaarvärvist is a grammatically inflected form used in phrases such as “primaarvärvist koostatud palett” meaning a palette composed from primary colors.

See also: Primary color, secondary color, color wheel, additive color model, subtractive color model, RGB, CMY, CMYK.