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Our color wheel The color wheel is our tool for understanding which colors go with what.
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Our color wheel
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Our color wheel Part science, part art, the color wheel is our tool for understanding which colors go with what.
Visible light
Wherever there is light, there is color. While we think of colors as independent—this blue, that red—a color is never seen alone but always in the context of other colors. Like a musical note, no one color is “good” or “bad.” Rather, it’s one part of a composition that as a whole is pleasing or not. The color wheel is our tool for understanding how colors relate to one another. Here’s how it works.
Infra-red
Ultraviolet
The color wheel is the range of visible light made into a circle.
Infinity, simplified White light contains all visible colors, which form an infinite spectrum that always appears in the violet-to-red sequence you see in a rainbow (right, top). To make it practical, the color wheel represents this infinity with 12 basic hues pretty much like those in your first box of crayons.
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What are the colors?
The wheel has 12 basic hues. First are the three primary colors of blue, yellow and red. Primary colors combine to make secondary colors, which combine to make tertiary colors.
Primary colors are the wheel’s “parent” colors; they are the only colors not made from other colors. The primary colors are positioned around the wheel in thirds.
Secondary colors are halfway between the primary colors. Each is made from equal amounts of the nearest primaries.
Tertiary colors are halfway between the secondary colors. Each is made from equal amounts of the adjacent secondaries.
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Colors in common
As you can tell, every color is part of the color next to it, which is part of the next and the next, all the way around the wheel. Colors in common are the basis of color relationships.
Blue is common to all seven colors, which get less blue as they fan out. Green and violet are the secondaries that contain blue.
Yellow is common to all seven colors, which get less yellow as they fan out. Green and orange are the secondaries that contain yellow.
Red is common to all seven colors, which get less red as they fan out. Orange and violet are the secondaries that contain red.
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Color value
Color also has darkness and lightness, or value. To show value, the color wheel has more rings; two big rings for the dark shades and two small rings for the light tints.
The color wheel has five concentric rings from dark to light— shades are the big rings, tints are the small, and hues are the middle.
Shade Tints and shades (Left) A shade is the hue plus black, and a tint is the hue plus white.
Shade Hue Tint
Infinite gradient (Below) Five steps represent what is actually a continuous gradient from white to black. A tint or shade can fall anywhere on the continuum.
Hue
Tint
Tints + hue white
Shades hue + black
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Color relationships
The following pages illustrate the six basic color relationships. Each can yield an endless number of color palettes.
Monochromatic First are the dark, medium and light values of a single color. This is a monochromatic palette. It has no color depth, but it provides the contrast of dark, medium and light that’s so important to good design.
Analogous Adjacent colors are called analogous. Analogous colors share strong undertones (here, yellow and red), which create pleasing, low-contrast harmony. Analogous palettes are rich and always easy to work with.
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Any palette can include shades and tints along with the hue. The result can be all dark, all light, or any combination.
Complement Direct opposites on the color wheel are complements—in this case, blue and orange. What the complement brings is contrast. A color and its complement convey energy, vigor and excitement. Typically, the complement is used in a smaller amount as an accent; a spot of orange on a blue field, for example.
Split complement One step either way are the complement’s own analogous colors. This palette is called a split complement. Its strength is in the low-contrast beauty of analogous colors, plus the added punctuation of an opposite color. In this case the red, because it’s most different, would likely be used as the accent.
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The amount of color matters. Palettes can be made warmer/cooler, darker/lighter, stronger/quieter and so on by using more or less of some colors.
Primary The primary colors are rarely seen as a trio except in children’s products. Red and yellow, however, are popular in American culture for everything from fast food to gasoline. Red and blue are common but attractive only if separated by open space. Rare
Popular
Clash
Secondary Secondary colors have a lot in common—two share blue, two share yellow, and two share red—so harmonize easily. As a trio they are soft, inviting and rich, and have pleasing depth and dimension that are hard to get in other ways.
Separated
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Now for a quiz
Train your eye: Each cover uses one of the basic color relationships. Can you name them? Hint: Look at the big colors, not the small ones, ignore black & white. Answers on page 11.
COUNTRY
Comfort
Garden Greens Great Gourds A Perfect Porch Simple Gifts Stovetop Treats Plush Pullover And more!
Monochromatic Analogous Complement Split complement Primary Secondary
COUNTRY
Comfort
Garden Greens Great Gourds A Perfect Porch Simple Gifts Stovetop Treats Plush Pullover And more!
Monochromatic Analogous Complement Split complement Primary Secondary
COUNTRY
Comfort
COUNTRY
Comfort
Garden Greens Great Gourds A Perfect Porch Simple Scarves Stovetop Treats Plush Pullover And more!
Garden Greens Great Gourds A Perfect Porch Simple Gifts Stovetop Treats Plush Pullover And more!
Monochromatic Analogous Complement Split complement Primary Secondary
Monochromatic Analogous Complement Split complement Primary Secondary
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Download: Before & After color wheel
Before&After
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Our color wheel | 748kb www.bamagazine.com/ColorWheel/ This color wheel is exactly the one we use in Before & After magazine. It is a reference tool, not an interactive product. Its purpose is to help you understand how colors are related. Its 12 hues and 48 tints represent the full spectrum of color but are only a tiny fraction of the infinity of colors actually in nature. The format is Adobe PDF. For everything you want to know about working with PDF, please contact Adobe’s Reader support Web site at www.adobe.com/support/products/acrreader.html
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Article resources
1 2 4a
COUNTRY
Comfort
Typefaces
COUNTRY
Comfort
Colors
1 Giza Nine Three 4c
9
2 Sloop ScriptOne
10
3 ITC Goudy Sans Bold Italic
C50 M0 Y76 K0
11 C30 M0 Y64 K0
9
10 Garden Greens Great Gourds A Perfect Porch Simple Gifts Stovetop Treats Plush Pullover And more!
Garden Greens Great Gourds A Perfect Porch Simple Gifts Stovetop Treats Plush Pullover And more!
11 12 3 5
17
Images
18
4 (a–d) iStockphoto.com |
12 C26 M0 Y47 K0
a b c d
16 19
Quiz answers
Comfort
13 C60 M25 Y0 K0 14 C50 M15 Y0 K0 15 C15 M5 Y0 K0
6
COUNTRY 4b
C65 M35 Y75 K65
COUNTRY
Comfort
5 Monochromatic
16 C0 M55 Y20 K0 17 C30 M85 Y75 K55
4d
18 C20 M80 Y35 K5 6 Complementary 13
20 Garden Greens Great Gourds A Perfect Porch Simple Gifts Stovetop Treats Plush Pullover And more!
14
15 16 7
Garden Greens Great Gourds A Perfect Porch Simple Gifts Stovetop Treats Plush Pullover And more!
8
21
19 C60 M28 Y90 K30 20 C0 M75 Y95 K0
7 Primary
21 C25 M75 Y100 K20
22 22 C0 M30 Y97 K0
23 8 Analogous
23 C5 M48 Y96 K0
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Before & After magazine Before & After has been sharing its practical approach to graphic design since 1990. Because our modern world has made designers of us all (ready or not), Before & After is dedicated to making graphic design understandable, useful and even fun for everyone. John McWade Publisher and creative director Gaye McWade Associate publisher Vincent Pascual Staff designer Dexter Mark Abellera Staff designer Before & After magazine 323 Lincoln Street, Roseville, CA 95678 Telephone 916-784-3880 Fax 916-784-3995 E-mail
[email protected] www http://www.bamagazine.com Copyright ©2006 Before & After magazine ISSN 1049-0035. All rights reserved You may pass along a free copy of this article to others by clicking here. You may not alter this article, and you may not charge for it. You may quote brief sections for review; please credit Before & After magazine, and let us know. To link Before & After magazine to your Web site, use this URL: http://www.bamagazine.com. For all other permissions, please contact us.
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Before & After is made to fit your binder Before & After articles are intended for permanent reference. All are titled and numbered. For the current table of contents, click here. To save time and paper, a paper-saver format of this article, suitable for one- or two-sided printing, is provided on the following pages.
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Our color wheel
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Visible light Infra-red
Our color wheel
The color wheel is the range of visible light made into a circle.
Ultraviolet
The color wheel is our tool for understanding which colors go with what.
Wherever there is light, there is color. While we think of colors as independent—this blue, that red—a color is never seen alone but always in the context of other colors. Like a musical note, no one color is “good” or “bad.” Rather, it’s one part of a composition that as a whole is pleasing or not. The color wheel is our tool for understanding how colors relate to one another. Here’s how it works.
1 of 6
Before&After | www.bamagazine.com
Infinity, simplified White light contains all visible colors, which form an infinite spectrum that always appears in the violet-to-red sequence you see in a rainbow (right, top). To make it practical, the color wheel represents this infinity with 12 basic hues pretty much like those in your first box of crayons.
0646 Our color wheel
What are the colors?
0646
Tertiary colors are halfway between the secondary colors. Each is made from equal amounts of the adjacent secondaries.
Red is common to all seven colors, which get less red as they fan out. Orange and violet are the secondaries that contain red.
Our color wheel
Secondary colors are halfway between the primary colors. Each is made from equal amounts of the nearest primaries.
The wheel has 12 basic hues. First are the three primary colors of blue, yellow and red. Primary colors combine to make secondary colors, which combine to make tertiary colors.
Primary colors are the wheel’s “parent” colors; they are the only colors not made from other colors. The primary colors are positioned around the wheel in thirds.
Colors in common
2 of 6
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Yellow is common to all seven colors, which get less yellow as they fan out. Green and orange are the secondaries that contain yellow.
As you can tell, every color is part of the color next to it, which is part of the next and the next, all the way around the wheel. Colors in common are the basis of color relationships.
Blue is common to all seven colors, which get less blue as they fan out. Green and violet are the secondaries that contain blue.
0646 Our color wheel
Color value
Hue
Shades hue + black
Tints and shades (Left) A shade is the hue plus black, and a tint is the hue plus white. Infinite gradient (Below) Five steps represent what is actually a continuous gradient from white to black. A tint or shade can fall anywhere on the continuum.
Analogous Adjacent colors are called analogous. Analogous colors share strong undertones (here, yellow and red), which create pleasing, low-contrast harmony. Analogous palettes are rich and always easy to work with.
Our color wheel
0646
Tints hue + white
Color also has darkness and lightness, or value. To show value, the color wheel has more rings; two big rings for the dark shades and two small rings for the light tints.
The color wheel has five concentric rings from dark to light— shades are the big rings, tints are the small, and hues are the middle.
3 of 6
Before&After | www.bamagazine.com
Monochromatic First are the dark, medium and light values of a single color. This is a monochromatic palette. It has no color depth, but it provides the contrast of dark, medium and light that’s so important to good design.
The following pages illustrate the six basic color relationships. Each can yield an endless number of color palettes.
Color relationships
Shade Shade Hue Tint Tint
0646 Our color wheel
Rare
Split complement One step either way are the complement’s own analogous colors. This palette is called a split complement. Its strength is in the low-contrast beauty of analogous colors, plus the added punctuation of an opposite color. In this case the red, because it’s most different, would likely be used as the accent.
Any palette can include shades and tints along with the hue. The result can be all dark, all light, or any combination.
Complement Direct opposites on the color wheel are complements—in this case, blue and orange. What the complement brings is contrast. A color and its complement convey energy, vigor and excitement. Typically, the complement is used in a smaller amount as an accent; a spot of orange on a blue field, for example.
Separated
Our color wheel
Secondary Secondary colors have a lot in common—two share blue, two share yellow, and two share red—so harmonize easily. As a trio they are soft, inviting and rich, and have pleasing depth and dimension that are hard to get in other ways.
The amount of color matters. Palettes can be made warmer/cooler, darker/lighter, stronger/quieter and so on by using more or less of some colors.
Clash
Primary The primary colors are rarely seen as a trio except in children’s products. Red and yellow, however, are popular in American culture for everything from fast food to gasoline. Red and blue are common but attractive only if separated by open space.
Popular
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0646 Our color wheel
Now for a quiz
Comfort
Monochromatic Analogous Complement Split complement Primary Secondary
Garden Greens Great Gourds A Perfect Porch Simple Gifts Stovetop Treats Plush Pullover And more!
COUNTRY
Monochromatic Analogous Complement Split complement Primary Secondary
Garden Greens Great Gourds A Perfect Porch Simple Scarves Stovetop Treats Plush Pullover And more!
Comfort
COUNTRY
®
Before&After
Our color wheel | 748kb www.bamagazine.com/ColorWheel/ This color wheel is exactly the one we use in Before & After magazine. It is a reference tool, not an interactive product. Its purpose is to help you understand how colors are related. Its 12 hues and 48 tints represent the full spectrum of color but are only a tiny fraction of the infinity of colors actually in nature. The format is Adobe PDF. For everything you want to know about working with PDF, please contact Adobe’s Reader support Web site at www.adobe.com/support/products/acrreader.html
Our color wheel
0646
Garden Greens Great Gourds A Perfect Porch Simple Gifts Stovetop Treats Plush Pullover And more!
Comfort
COUNTRY
Train your eye: Each cover uses one of the basic color relationships. Can you name them? Hint: Look at the big colors, not the small ones, ignore black & white. Answers on page 6.
Comfort
COUNTRY
Garden Greens Great Gourds A Perfect Porch Simple Gifts Stovetop Treats Plush Pullover And more!
Monochromatic Analogous Complement Split complement Primary Secondary
5 of 6
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Download: Before & After color wheel
Monochromatic Analogous Complement Split complement Primary Secondary
0646 Our color wheel
1
Comfort
Garden Greens Great Gourds A Perfect Porch Simple Gifts Stovetop Treats Plush Pullover And more!
Garden Greens Great Gourds A Perfect Porch Simple Gifts Stovetop Treats Plush Pullover And more!
Comfort
8
COUNTRY
6
COUNTRY
Article resources
Comfort
Garden Greens Great Gourds A Perfect Porch Simple Gifts Stovetop Treats Plush Pullover And more!
COUNTRY
5
Comfort
Garden Greens Great Gourds A Perfect Porch Simple Gifts Stovetop Treats Plush Pullover And more!
COUNTRY
7
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4c
17
18 16 19
4d
20
21
22 23
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per article. To learn more, go to
E-mail this article To pass along a free copy of this article to others, click here. Join our e-list To be notified by e-mail of new articles as they become available, go to http://www.bamagazine.com/email
Typefaces 1 Giza Nine Three 2 Sloop ScriptOne 3 ITC Goudy Sans Bold Italic
Images 4 (a–d) iStockphoto.com | a b c d
9
C50 M0 Y76 K0
C65 M35 Y75 K65
Colors
10 11 C30 M0 Y64 K0
12 C26 M0 Y47 K0 13 C60 M25 Y0 K0 14 C50 M15 Y0 K0 15 C15 M5 Y0 K0 16 C0 M55 Y20 K0 17 C30 M85 Y75 K55 18 C20 M80 Y35 K5 19 C60 M28 Y90 K30 20 C0 M75 Y95 K0 21 C25 M75 Y100 K20 22 C0 M30 Y97 K0 23 C5 M48 Y96 K0
Our color wheel
You may pass along a free copy of this article to others by clicking here. You may not alter this article, and you may not charge for it. You may quote brief sections for review; please credit Before & After magazine, and let us know. To link Before & After magazine to your Web site, use this URL: http://www.bamagazine.com. For all other permissions, please contact us.
Copyright ©2006 Before & After magazine ISSN 1049-0035. All rights reserved
Before & After magazine 323 Lincoln Street, Roseville, CA 95678 Telephone 916-784-3880 Fax 916-784-3995 E-mail
[email protected] www http://www.bamagazine.com
John McWade Publisher and creative director Gaye McWade Associate publisher Vincent Pascual Staff designer Dexter Mark Abellera Staff designer
Before & After magazine Before & After has been sharing its practical approach to graphic design since 1990. Because our modern world has made designers of us all (ready or not), Before & After is dedicated to making graphic design understandable, useful and even fun for everyone.
8 Analogous
7 Primary
6 Complementary
5 Monochromatic
Quiz answers
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4b
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