1Two things to know first
A photo is a grid, and a screen has only three lights
You need two small ideas. Watch each one happen:
A photo is a grid
Every screen picture is built from a grid of tiny squares called pixels. Far away they blur into a smooth photo.
Only three lights
A screen can't make paint. It can only switch on three lights — red, green, and blue — at different brightnesses.
2It depends how close you look
Same dot — two very different views
From across the room 🛋️
Your eye smears the tiny lights together into one smooth color. An orange sunset looks like solid orange.
Nose against the glass 🔍
Too close to smear, you start to see the specks separate out. Keep this in mind…
3Mix the three lights
Three lights make many colors
Here are the screen's only three lights, overlapping. Slide each one brighter or dimmer and watch the mixed color in the middle change — try to make orange.
Bright red plus medium green makes this orange. Crank all three up full and you get white. Different amounts make many colors, within the screen’s range.
4Now zoom WAY in
Pick one orange pixel and dive in 🔍
Here is a pixel drawing of a sunset. One orange-sky pixel uses red 238, green 124, and blue 48 on a scale from 0 to 255. We will zoom into it, then switch only its GREEN light off.
Predict the missing light
After the green light switches off, what will happen to this orange pixel? Red and blue keep their original brightnesses.
Slide all the way right to land on a single pixel — then watch it split into its three lights.