Puzzling Stack Exchange is a question and answer site for those who create, solve, and study puzzles. It only takes a minute to sign up.
Sign up to join this community
I'm a kaleidoscope of colors,
Red, blue, green of sorts
You use me everyday,
Even now you're using me,
Or maybe my arch-rival...
Cool as he is, he's -
Mostly used offline!
Yet, he's vital to many prints,
Kaleidoscope, kaleidoscope...
My rival's smug, very, very smug,
He's comprised of more than me...
But he only subtracts, I add,
We're very under-hyped!
Kaleidoscope, kaleidoscope,
Part of a broader view!
I'm a kaleidoscope of colors,
Red, blue, green of sorts
You use me everyday,
Even now you're using me,
Or maybe my arch-rival...
My guess would be that kaleidoscope is RGB color model and arch-rival is CMYK color model
Cool as he is, he's -
Mostly used offline!
Yet, he's vital to many prints,
Kaleidoscope, kaleidoscope...
CMYK color model is normally used in printers, so he's used offline and he's vital to many prints
And as rand al'thor mentioned in his comment, the initial letters of the lines also form CMYK
My rival's smug, very, very smug,
He's comprised of more than me...
But he only subtracts, I add,
We're very under-hyped!
CMYK color model is comprised of 4 colors: Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Key(black), RGB color model only consists of 3 colors: Red, Green and Blue.
From Wikipedia:
The CMYK color model (process color, four color) is a subtractive color model
The RGB color model is an additive color model
Kaleidoscope, kaleidoscope,
Part of a broader view!
So my final answer is:
And a bit of how-I-got-there:
RGB was really easy to figure out. Actually, it is in the question.
Then I thought that kaleidoscope could be the CRT(cathode ray tube), then the rival would be LCD/TFT
But I didn't find anything about adding/subtracting about CRT/LCD, so I started reading about RGB color model
In there I saw that this color model is additive, so I immediately went to other color models hoping to find a subtractive one
After I read the riddle again with those color models in my mind, everything made sense :)
Could you be:
A computer screen
I'm a kaleidoscope of colors, Red, blue, green of sorts You use me everyday, Even now you're using me, Or maybe my arch-rival...
Computer screens are made up of RGB components. The arch rival could refer to a TV instead of a monitor which some people use instead.
Cool as he is, he's - Mostly used offline! Yet, he's vital to many prints, Kaleidoscope, kaleidoscope...
TVs are normally used offline but are used for stories (related to prints/books?)
My rival's smug, very, very smug, He's comprised of more than me... But he only subtracts, I add, We're very under-hyped!
Televisions are normally bigger and contain more pixels. However these days many monitors are touch screens. In the same way touch screens "add" functionality, TVs subtract(yeah it's weak).
Anyone else feel free to steal my answer if you can come up with a better explanation for the iffy parts.
Credit to Quark for figuring out the first 4 lines.
I'm a kaleidoscope of colors, Red, blue, green of sorts You use me everyday, Even now you're using me,
This refers to a computer screen. Each pixel has red, blue, and green components. I use a computer screen everyday, and I am using one to read this puzzle.
Or maybe my arch-rival...
This is a printer.
Cool as he is, he's - Mostly used offline!
Not sure about this - most printers are not connected to the internet.
Yet, he's vital to many prints,
Obviously a printer is vital to many prints.
My rival's smug, very, very smug, He's comprised of more than me...
Inkjet printers use CMYK (4 colors - cyan, magenta, yellow, key/black) instead of RGB (3 colors).
But he only subtracts, I add,
CMYK is a subtractive color model, RGB is an additive color model.
