What Colors Make Green? Paint, RGB and CMYK Recipes

Blue and yellow make green in traditional paint mixing, while cyan and yellow produce a cleaner, brighter green. The proportion determines whether the result leans toward blue-green or yellow-green, while the specific pigments determine how saturated or muted the final green appears.

Mixing green with paint

Paint mixing is subtractive because pigments absorb parts of the light that reaches them.

Start with roughly equal amounts of blue and yellow for a middle green. Add more yellow for a warmer yellow-green, or more blue for a cooler blue-green.

Traditional blue and yellow pigments produce good greens, but some combinations become muted. Ultramarine blue with a warm yellow, for example, gives a soft olive because the red bias in both pigments dulls the mix.

For a cleaner green, cyan (or phthalo blue) plus a lemon yellow is the better starting combination.

Mix small amounts at a time. Strong blues easily overpower lighter yellow pigments.

Green in RGB light

RGB screens use additive light rather than subtractive pigments.

Full green is already one of the RGB primary colors: rgb(0, 255, 0), which is #00FF00.

In additive mixing, red plus green light creates yellow, while green plus blue creates cyan. This is why the rules you learned for paint cannot be applied directly to screen colors.

Green in CMYK printing

CMYK uses subtractive cyan, magenta, yellow, and black inks.

Cyan plus yellow produces green. A reference for a strong process green is C100 M0 Y100 K0.

Changing the cyan-to-yellow balance shifts the hue. Adding black creates darker greens, while adding magenta neutralizes the mixture.

Actual print appearance depends on the ICC profile, paper, inks, and press conditions.

Green HEX examples

• Light green #BBF7D0
• Medium green #22C55E
• Dark green #166534
• Muted green #71866A

The muted example has lower saturation, giving it a softer appearance than the brighter medium green.

How to adjust green

Add white paint to make a pale green or mint tint. Add black sparingly for deeper forest greens.

To reduce the intensity of a green without making it darker, introduce a tiny amount of its complement in the red range. This creates natural olive, sage, and muted green mixtures.

Use the color mixer to experiment with paint, RGB, CMYK, and OKLCH mixing modes, then check color name lookup for a name close to your result.

FAQ

What two colors make green?

Blue and yellow make green in traditional paint mixing. Cyan and yellow produce a cleaner green because they contain less of the third primary.

How do I make dark green?

Start with green and add a small amount of black, or increase the blue component of the mixture. Add black slowly because a small amount changes the color significantly.

What colors make lime green?

Start with green and shift it strongly toward yellow. A bright yellow combined with a smaller amount of cyan produces a vivid yellow-green.