this post was submitted on 31 May 2026
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Mildly Interesting
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Your screen on your phone is RGB. Red Green Blue pixels. There is no yellow light ever being sent to your eyes. So if you were to look at a yellow square on your phone the pixels are RGB in a mix convincing your brain it is yellow.
So when you get a blue dress with warm yellow light, the pixels on your phone tries to convey that bit of yellow
Different devices will show it more or less.
If you printed out the picture there would be no illusion.
Why would this be true?
They're saying screens use RGB which has no yellow, directly.
Printing uses CMYK which can print yellow, directly.
I mean even then it depends on the lighting in the room. If you have LED lightbulbs there is still no “actually yellow” light.
Also your eyes don’t care.
A printed version of the picture will still maintain the illusion. I’ve actually seen a variant of this illusion printed in a book before.