I never really looked into the history of why they chose rgb for colour displays, but I would guess maybe it’s because that’s how our vision works?
From what I understand, RGB are the primary colors for mixing different wavelengths of light to produce other colors, so it makes sense that it would more directly map with what the eye’s cones detect.
The RYB that Goethe was talking about are primary colors for mixing different pigments, so paint or ink instead of directly emitting different wavelengths of light. I’m pretty sure the technology to emit specific wavelengths of light didn’t exist at Goethe’s time, but the pigment mixing way of getting different hues had been around for a long time, so it’s not surprising that he would think that’s how eyes work as well. People’s ideas are going to be shaped by the dominant ideas of the time and all that.
Certainly true, no one had figured out electronic lights yet, I guess Newton had already shown the component spectrum of light centuries before this.
As for rgb being just how light works, I don’t think that’s true - other animals have cones different peak sensitivities to us, bees for instance have one type of cone that lets them see in the near-UV. I don’t think there’s anything preferred about rgb, they’re just the colours suited to (most) human vision
From what I understand, RGB are the primary colors for mixing different wavelengths of light to produce other colors, so it makes sense that it would more directly map with what the eye’s cones detect.
The RYB that Goethe was talking about are primary colors for mixing different pigments, so paint or ink instead of directly emitting different wavelengths of light. I’m pretty sure the technology to emit specific wavelengths of light didn’t exist at Goethe’s time, but the pigment mixing way of getting different hues had been around for a long time, so it’s not surprising that he would think that’s how eyes work as well. People’s ideas are going to be shaped by the dominant ideas of the time and all that.
Certainly true, no one had figured out electronic lights yet, I guess Newton had already shown the component spectrum of light centuries before this.
As for rgb being just how light works, I don’t think that’s true - other animals have cones different peak sensitivities to us, bees for instance have one type of cone that lets them see in the near-UV. I don’t think there’s anything preferred about rgb, they’re just the colours suited to (most) human vision