Magenta is not a primary color. On a traditional color wheel, there are only three true primary colors: red, yellow, and blue. Magenta is composed mostly of a cool red, with a little bit of a cool blue, making it essentially a type of secondary color. The reason people get confused about whether magenta is a primary color is because of digital design. In the Red Green Blue (RGB) and Cyan Magenta Yellow Black (CMYK) color models of digital printing and design, magenta is a primary color, and can be mixed with the other primary colors to create all colors. According to these models, to make red you can mix magenta and yellow, to make yellow you can mix red with green, and to make blue you can mix magenta with cyan.