The Color Wheel
The color wheel
The color wheel is designed so that virtually any colors you pick from it will look good together.
Traditionally, there are a number of color combinations that are considered especially pleasing. These are calledcolor harmonies or color chords and they consist of two or more colors with a fixed relation in the color wheel.
Primary, Secondary and Tertiary Colors
In the RYB (or subtractive) color model, the primary colors are red, yellow and blue.
The three secondary colors(green, orange and purple) are created by mixing two primary colors.
Another six tertiary colors are created by mixing primary and secondary colors.
Warm and cool colors
The color circle can be divided into warm and cool colors.
Warm colors are vivid and energetic, and tend to advance in space.
Cool colors give an impression of calm, and create a soothing impression.
White, black and gray are considered to be neutral.
Tints, Shades, and Tones
These terms are often used incorrectly, although they describe fairly simple color concepts. If a color is made lighter by adding white, the result is called a tint. If black is added, the darker version is called a shade. And if gray is added, the result is a differenttone.
Tints - adding white to a pure hue: |
Shades - adding black to a pure hue: |
Tones - adding gray to a pure hue: |
Color Harmonies |
- basic techniques for creating color schemes
Below are shown the basic color chords based on thecolor wheel.