The Color Wheel - Come Up With Perfectly Matching Colors for Any Pattern

In the year 1666, Sir Isaac Newton passed a beam of light through a prism and the white light split up into an array of colors. Thus, the colors which comprise white light were discovered and the color wheel theory came into being.

At the time of creating any colored pattern, be it for print layouts or for web based designs, colors should be selected on the basis of their position in the color wheel with respect to each other.

The color wheel theory is easy to understand.

  • Primary Colors: Blue, Red and Yellow. Combinations of these colors, along with white, black and grey, give all the other colors.
  • Secondary Colors: Purple (or Violet), Orange and Green. These are produced by the combinations of red and blue, red and yellow and blue and yellow respectively.
  • Tertiary Colors: Combination of Primary and Secondary colors give the tertiary or intermediate colors. Aqua-marine is a secondary color produced by the combination of Primary Blue and Secondary Green.
  • Complementary Colors: Colors that opposite to each other in the color wheel. Like red and blue.
  • Value of a Color: This corresponds with the amount of Black, White or Gray mixed with a particular color to produce a new hue. As for example, Pink is produced by mixing red with white, and it is a light value of red. On the other hand, Cranberry is produced by mixing red and black, so it is a dark value of red.
  • Saturation: This depicts the purity of a hue. A saturated red, consists of only pure red color. Adding either white or black can de-saturate a hue.
  • Tint: Adding White to produce a light value.
  • Tone: Adding Gray to give a medium value.
  • Shade: Adding Black to produce a dark value.
In the color wheel made from the color wheel theory, one side is made of cool colors – the myriad hues of green, blue, and violet. The other side is made of ward colors – red, yellow and orange, and similar shades. Combinations of colors chosen from opposite sides of the wheel give a variety of interesting tints and tones.

Analogous Color Schemes: According to the color wheel theory, colors that are adjacent to each other on the wheel give analogous color schemes. One of the colors is used as the dominant one while adjacent ones are used to bring out the effect. Example: Aqua.

Split Complementary Colors: These are created by using one color and the two colors that are adjacent to the one that is complementary to it according to the color wheel theory. This type of a color scheme produces a high visual contrast. Example: Eggplant.

Triadic Colors: These color schemes are created by using three colors equally spaced out around the color wheel.

Perfect Color Match is Necessary for an Attractive Design Pattern.

In order to come up with a perfect design, matching the colors perfectly is imperative. To achieve this, an understanding of the color wheel theory is important. This theory helps in the perception of relating colors to one another.

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