Color Wheel

What Is Color Theory

You might hear it tossed around and wonder what it means when you are talking to artists and designers. Should not art be based on creativity and not theories?

While that sentiment holds some truth, color theory is both the practical science and creative art of using color. It is a set of suggested guidelines and rules for creating color combinations or visual effects of specific color schemes. It uses a color wheel to visualize the relationship between colors and simplifies the process of creating a harmonious or contrasting color effect for your designs.

You are free to come up with random color palettes you want, but using a color wheel can ease your pain by getting inspired on what color schemes and hues to get started.

Make Color Combinations with Color Harmony

When it comes to creating a color palette, different rules of color harmonies come into play, so read on to understand them better and get your most suitable color palette.

Color Combinations

Analogous color

Analogous colors are usually in groups of three and can be found next to each other on the color wheel. You can create an analogous color scheme by choosing a dominant color and using the ones next to it as accents. Once input your preferred dominating color, you will see a five-point is given on our color wheel. Simply drag and drop to adjust the shade and tint, making your analogous color palette more varied yet cohesive.

Complementary color

Complementary colors, also known as opposite colors are a pair of colors that are directly opposite each other on the color wheel. It consists of only two colors in its basic form, and the three main complementary color schemes are red and green, yellow and purple, blue and orange. Complementary colors create a strong contrasting effect that appears to be more vibrant and prominent.

Need a good complementary scheme for your design? Use our color wheel to apply the complementary color rule, then adjust and add varying shades with the additional three rings.

Compound color

Compound colors are also known as split complementary colors. A compound color scheme creates more color excitement but less contrast compared to a complementary color scheme. It contains one primary color and two adjacent colors to its complement, while complementary color schemes use two opposite colors on the color wheel.

This simply means that you’ll get the immediate neighboring colors of the complementary color for your palette.

Monochromatic color

Monochromatic colors refer to a singular color and its associated shades, tints and tones. A monochromatic color scheme is comprised of a base color as hue and its extended shades, tones and tints by adding white, black or darker colors. It is aesthetically pleasing with a streamlined, gentle and steady color combination.

You can easily create a monochromatic color palette using our color theory wheel. With your chosen base color, it will automatically apply the monochromatic color rule to create a color palette with its shades, tints and tones.

Tetradic color

Tetradic colors, also known as square or rectangular colors are made up of two sets of complementary color harmonies. Thus, it is also called a double-complementary color scheme. With the Greek word ‘tetra’ meaning four, you will see a four-point on the color wheel containing four individual colors or hues.

Due to its aggressive vibrant and contrast, tetradic color schemes can be difficult to use. The key is to create a balance and emotional relations between these colors by using a color wheel as support.

Triadic color

A triadic color scheme refers to the three colors in an equilateral triangle, evenly spaced out on the color wheel. ‘Tri’ originates from both Greek and Latin, meaning three.

Some basic tetradic color schemes include the use of primary colors of red, yellow and blue, and the secondary colors of orange, green and purple.

Primary, Secondary And Tertiary Colors

Primary, secondary and tertiary refer to more than just education levels. Primary colors set the foundation for the secondary and tertiary colors of the two more well-known color wheels.

Primary colors

Primary colors come in two sets, RGB or RYB, resulting in two different color wheels. Red and blue are the constants of RXB while G stands for green and Y for yellow. The difference between RGB and RYB is that when the primary colors of RGB mix, they create pure white light, while RYB will create pure black.

Secondary colors

Secondary colors are the outcome of mixing two primary colors, located between primary colors on the color wheel. According to the traditional RYB color wheel, a combination of red and yellow makes orange color, yellow and blue makes green color, red and blue makes purple color. From the RGB color wheel, a mixture of red and green makes yellow color, green and blue makes cyan color, red and blue makes magenta color.

Tertiary colors

Tertiary colors, also called intermediate colors are colors mixed by a primary color with a secondary color. The RGB color wheel pairings result in Orange, Chartreuse Green, Forest Green, Blue Grotto, Violet and Rose Red. The tertiary colors of the RYB color wheel are Red Orange, Yellow Orange, Yellow Green, Blue Green, Blue Violet and Red Violet.

Warm and Cool Colors

Color temperature refers to the warmth and coolness of a color. The cooler a color, the more bluish in tone, while warm colors are yellowish. This would easily distinguish warm colors from cool colors.

Warm colors

Warm colors include variations of all shades of red, orange and yellow. A warm color conveys feelings of positivity and invigoration. But, it could also represent negative emotions such as anger or danger as the shades get deeper and more intense.

Cool colors

Cool colors are consist of blue, green, purple, and variations of all these three primary colors. Contradictory to the intense feelings of warm colors, cool colors are soothing, calm and relaxing. But without exception, these cool colors could also be felt as negative feelings of sadness and apathy.

Shades, Tints, and Tones

Shades, tints and tones create different gradients by mixing black, white and gray into a base color.

Color shades

Shade is created by adding black to a base color that increases the color darkness for better intensity and depth. With only black added, it reduces the vibrance of the base color and gives it some richness and complexity.

Need a color palette that contains darker shades of your favorite color? Use our color wheel and choose shades to make your own color palette. Simply drag and drop to explore various colors and shades that match your liking and needs.

Color tints

Tints, also known as pastels or pastel colors are mild, elegant and soothing. While shades are created by adding black, tints go the opposite route by adding white to a base color. The use of white mixed into a base color can reduce the saturation of the color and increase its lightness.

Color tones

A tone is created by adding gray, or an equal of both black and white to a base color. These tones fall between being subtle and complex due to gray, but keep in mind that adding too much gray into a base color can become less vibrant and over-dulled.

Hue, Saturation, and Luminance

Hue, saturation, and luminance, also known as HSL are the alternative titles to the process of color adjustments.

Hue

Hue, also known as base colors is one of the critical properties in color theory. It refers to pure colors or the origin of colors found on the color wheel.

Some basic examples of hues are red, orange, yellow, green, blue and violet. Secondary and tertiary colors are also considered hues.

Saturation

Saturation refers to the intensity of colors by adjusting the tone of a hue. Low-saturation colors take on more gray tones, ultimately becoming gray. While high-saturation colors contain more black, resulting in deeper shade. Saturated colors are the original hues.

Luminance

Luminance is a measure of light or brightness in a color. In other words, it is about adjusting the whites and blacks to calibrate the brightness level of a hue. A 100% luminance results in fully white color, while a luminance of 0 is black.

Color Meanings and Schemes

Do you know colors have the power to evoke emotions and influence our perception? The color theory follows the rules, guidelines and technical aspects of the color application. However, different colors hold different meanings and are used to symbolize different aspects in several cultures. For example, white symbolizes purity or wedding celebrations in the United States. But in East Asia and Ancient Egypt, white represents death and funerals.

Just one color can represent opposite ends of the spectrum shows just how symbolically versatile colors are. Interested to learn more about color meanings and symbolism?