When asked about the primary colors, most of us would say “red, blue and green”. We were taught about these colors at schools and we may look confident. But it is not the case, some fields use different colors as primaries.
However, there is no issue considering these colors as primary colors of light. They are generally used in media that combine emitted lights such as in television, and computer video displays. You can easily demonstrate this by putting a drop of water on your TV or computer screen. But it is a different case with paints and pigments.
The basic definition of ‘primary colors states that a primary color cannot be produced by mixing two colors together. But, mixing equal amounts of cyan and magenta can make blue and mixing equal amounts of magenta and yellow can produce red in color printing. So, they are not considered as the primary colors in printing industry. Other colors such as cyan magenta and yellow are considered as primary colors in paints and pigments.
According to Webster’s New World Dictionary, the primary colors of paints, pigments, etc. are red, yellow and blue. A journal of chemical education states that cyan, magenta, and yellow are used as primaries in printing. Some say Yellow, Red (Magenta), and Blue (Cyan) are primaries in color printing industry.