Methods and apparatus for rendering colors in displays, such as adjustable interferometric modulation displays can produce many colors with different sub-sets of primary colors. Received colors to be rendered are analyzed to determine when the colors to be rendered are within a predefined neutral region of a color space. Temporal primary colors may be generated to be used for rendering the received colors in a color space that are generated by temporal modulation using at least two temporal subframes to mix first and second primary colors of a display, such as white and black primaries. The temporal primary colors are used when rendering colors that lie within the predefined neutral region of the color space. When white and black primaries are used for temporal modulation, the produced grayscale temporal primaries are more robust than using two complementary colors, affording more robust neutral and near neutral colors.