Paint Color Mixer
Mix paint colours the way they really behave on a palette: subtractive RYB blending, so blue and yellow make green. Set the parts of each colour, then take the result straight to a real, buyable paint.
Mixed like real paint, blue + yellow = green, red + yellow = orange and red + blue = purple — because pigments blend subtractively (RYB). Pick your colours below, set the parts of each, and get the exact result in hex, by name and in real paint.
Paint is subtractive. Every pigment absorbs part of the spectrum and reflects the rest, so when you combine two paints the mixture reflects less light than either one alone — the result is always darker and more muted. That's the opposite of mixing light, and it's why a paint mixer can't be a simple average of RGB values.
Artists work in RYB primaries — red, yellow and blue. From those you get the secondaries (orange, green, purple) and, by mixing complements, the browns and greys. This tool models that behaviour with a proper RYB blend, so the results match what happens on a real palette rather than what happens on a screen.
Real pigments also differ in opacity and tinting strength: a little phthalo blue overpowers a lot of white, while earth colours are weak and forgiving. Use the parts control to lean a mix toward the stronger pigment, then match the result to a real paint across 16 brands to see how it translates in a can.
The most-searched colour combinations — tap any to load it into the mixer (paint mode).
Looking to make a specific colour, or wondering what two colours make? These guides have the exact mixes — each with a live mixer and real paint.
Our color tools run on our own catalogue of 26,000+ real paint colors across 16 brands — Benjamin Moore, Sherwin-Williams, Behr, Dulux, RAL and more — with the color math (HSL and CIELAB matching) computed in-house, not scraped from summaries. Every color you pick maps to a real, buyable paint with its code, so what you see here you can actually take to the store. We review and update these tools and their data regularly.
Created by Denis Kataev, founder of DSGN.HOUSE — a software engineer and digital entrepreneur building professional color-design tools for everyone.
How do paint colours mix?+
Paint mixes subtractively: each pigment absorbs some light, so the result is darker and follows the RYB primaries (red, yellow, blue). That's why blue + yellow makes green. This mixer uses that model by default, then matches the result to a real paint.
What's the difference between RYB, RGB and CMYK mixing?+
RYB (paint) is how pigments combine on a canvas — red, yellow and blue are the primaries. RGB (light/screens) mixes brightness, so red + green makes yellow. CMYK is the subtractive model used in printing. Pick the model that matches what you're actually mixing.
Does it show the result as real paint?+
Yes — under the mixed colour it shows the nearest real, buyable paint across 16 brands (the closest match by colour distance, any brand), with its code, plus the colour's common name.
Why doesn't blue and yellow make grey here?+
Because the default mode mixes like real paint (subtractive / RYB): blue + yellow makes green, just like on a palette. Switch to RGB mode to mix like light, where the maths is an average of the red, green and blue channels instead.
Can I mix more than two colours?+
Yes — add as many colours as you like and give each one a number of parts. A 3:1 mix leans heavily to the first colour; equal parts give a straight blend. The result updates live.