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 any color
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.
Red + green with no blue makes orange. Crank all three up full and you get white. That's every color a screen knows.
4Now zoom WAY in
Pick one orange pixel and dive in 🔍
Here's a real photo: a girl in front of an orange sunset. We're going to zoom into one single dot of that orange sky until you can see what it's actually made of.
Guess before you zoom
If you could zoom WAY in on one tiny dot of that orange sunset, what would you actually see?
Slide all the way right to land on a single pixel — then watch it split into its three lights.