On the color wheel for light, red is opposite which color?

• A. Cyan
• B. Green
• C. Blue
• D. Magenta

Answer: (A)

On light, colors are added from red, green, and blue, and opposite colors on the wheel are complements that combine with their partner to make white light. Cyan is made from green and blue light, so when you mix red light with cyan light you get white. That makes cyan the color opposite red on the additive color wheel.

So the opposite of red in this system is cyan. The other options aren’t opposite red on this wheel: magenta pairs with green, yellow pairs with blue, and red plus green or blue doesn’t yield white in the same complementary way.