What Colors Make White?
White cannot be mixed from other paints — it is the lightest pigment and must be used straight. With light, however, red, green and blue combined make white.
White is a primary color in paint. It cannot be created by mixing other pigments — it has to come from a tube or a dye. The recipes below are the closest approximations, or the way white is produced in other color models.
Red + Green + Blue light = White
Red
1 part
Green
1 part
Blue
1 part
White
This only works with LIGHT, not paint. All three additive primaries at full brightness combine into white.
Adjusting your white
To lighten: Already the lightest value in paint.
To darken: Add any colour to tint it, or black to move toward gray.
To mute or soften: Add a speck of yellow or brown for warm off-whites like cream and ivory.
Mixing paint vs. mixing light
The recipes above describe subtractive mixing — how paint, ink and pigment behave. Each pigment absorbs part of the spectrum, so the more you add, the darker the mixture gets.
Screens work the opposite way, using additive mixing with red, green and blue light: the more you add, the brighter it gets. With light (RGB), white is all three primaries at full brightness, i.e. #FFFFFF — the exact opposite of how paint behaves.
Frequently asked about making white
What colors make white?
White cannot be mixed from other paints — it is the lightest pigment and must be used straight. With light, however, red, green and blue combined make white.
What two colors make white?
Red + Green + Blue light makes white. This only works with LIGHT, not paint. All three additive primaries at full brightness combine into white.
How do you make white lighter or darker?
Already the lightest value in paint. Add any colour to tint it, or black to move toward gray.
Is mixing white paint the same as mixing white light?
No. Paint mixes subtractively while light mixes additively. With light (RGB), white is all three primaries at full brightness, i.e. #FFFFFF — the exact opposite of how paint behaves.