Questions about the Additive & Subtractive poster

What’s on the Additive & Subtractive poster?

Additive - light against Subtractive - pigment, side by side. Additive - light: Primaries red, green and blue; Additive - light: Mixing adds wavelengths; Additive - light: All three together give white; Additive - light: Screens, projectors, stage lighting; Additive - light: Secondaries: cyan, magenta, yellow; Subtractive - pigment: Primaries cyan, magenta and yellow; Subtractive - pigment: Each layer absorbs wavelengths; Subtractive - pigment: All three together give muddy brown; Subtractive - pigment: Ink, paint, dye, filters; Subtractive - pigment: Secondaries: red, green, blue; The secondaries of one system are the primaries of the other. That is why screen and…. Red, yellow and blue is a teaching convention, not a subtractive primary set. Cyan and magenta mix a far wider range.

Who is the Additive & Subtractive poster for?

Additive & Subtractive belongs to the Art & Design section rather than to a school year, because design is not something one grade owns. Anyone learning colour & composition can pin it up — a beginner, a student mid-course, or someone revising years later.

When should you use the Additive & Subtractive poster?

Use it when a screen colour refuses to mix the same way in paint or in ink. A wall chart earns its place by being glanceable from where the work is happening, so Additive & Subtractive belongs on the wall where that design work actually happens, within glancing distance, rather than filed away.

What other posters go with Additive & Subtractive?

Colour Contrast, Scale & Proportion and Colour Schemes sit alongside Additive & Subtractive in the Art & Design section. Printed together they make a wall rather than a single sheet, which is how a reference set actually gets used.Colour ContrastScale & ProportionColour Schemes

Is the Additive & Subtractive poster free to download and print?

Yes. Additive & Subtractive downloads as a free PDF with no account, no email and no watermark, like everything else in the Art & Design section. Print as many copies as you like for a home, a classroom, a library or a tutoring group; reselling the file is the only thing the licence rules out.Read the licence

What size does the Additive & Subtractive poster print at?

Additive & Subtractive is a vector PDF laid out for US Letter, and prints on A4 with Fit to page — the same file, no separate download. Because every mark on it is drawn rather than photographed, it stays sharp enlarged to A3, A2 or A1 at a copy shop. Colour carries emphasis only, so a greyscale print of Additive & Subtractive loses nothing.Printing guide