Visual Design elements and principles describe fundamental ideas about the practice of

good visual design.

As William Lidwell stated in Universal Principles of Design:

The best designers sometimes disregard the principles of design. When they do so, however,
there is usually some compensating merit attained at the cost of the violation. Unless you are
certain of doing as well, it is best to abide by the principles.[1]

Design elements are the basic units of a painting, drawing, design or other visual piece[2] and include:

Color

 Color can play a large role in the elements of design[3] with the color wheel being used
as a tool, and color theory providing a body of practical guidance to color mixing and the
visual impacts of specific color combination.

Color star containing primary, secondary, and tertiary colors.

Uses

 Color can aid organization so develop a color strategy and stay consistent with those
colors.[3]
 It can give emphasis to create a hierarchy and the piece of art

Attributes

 Hue[3]
 Values and tints and shades of colors that are created by adding black to a color for a shade
and white for a tint. Creating a tint or shade of color reduces the saturation.[3]
 Saturation gives a color brightness or dullness.[3]

Shape

A shape is defined as a two-dimensional area that stands out from the space next to or around
it due to a defined or implied boundary, or because of differences of value, color, or texture.[4]
All objects are composed of shapes and all other 'Elements of Design' are shapes in some
way.[5]

Categories

 Mechanical Shapes or Geometric Shapes are the shapes that can be drawn using a ruler or
compass. Mechanical shapes, whether simple or complex, produce a feeling of control or
order.[5]
 Organic Shapes are freehand drawn shapes that are complex and normally found in nature.
Organic shapes produce a natural feel.[5]

Texture

The tree's visual texture is represented here in this image.

Meaning the way a surface feels or is perceived to feel. Texture can be added to attract or
repel interest to an element, depending on the pleasantness of the texture.[5]

Types of texture

 Tactile texture is the actual three-dimension feel of a surface that can be touched. Painter
can use impasto to build peaks and create texture.[5]
 Visual texture is the illusion of the surfaces peaks and valleys, like the tree pictured. Any
texture shown in a photo is a visual texture, meaning the paper is smooth no matter how
rough the image perceives it to be.[5]

Most textures have a natural touch but still seem to repeat a motif in some way. Regularly
repeating a motif will result in a texture appearing as a pattern.[5]
Space

In design, space is concerned with the area deep within the moment of designated design, the
design will take place on. For a two-dimensional design space concerns creating the illusion
of a third dimension on a flat surface:[5]

 Overlap is the effect where objects appear to be on top of each other. This illusion makes
the top element look closer to the observer. There is no way to determine the depth of the
space, only the order of closeness.
 Shading adds gradation marks to make an object of a two-dimensional surface seem three-
dimensional.
 Highlight, Transitional Light, Core of the Shadow, Reflected Light, and Cast Shadow give an
object a three-dimensional look.[5]
 Linear Perspective is the concept relating to how an object seems smaller the farther away it
gets.
 Atmospheric Perspective is based on how air acts as a filter to change the appearance of
distance objects.

Form

Form may be described as any three-dimensional object. Form can be measured, from top to
bottom (height), side to side (width), and from back to front (depth). Form is also defined by
light and dark. It can be defined by the presence of shadows on surfaces or faces of an object.
There are two types of form, geometric (man-made) and natural (organic form). Form may be
created by the combining of two or more shapes. It may be enhanced by tone, texture and
color. It can be illustrated or constructed.

Principles of design

Principles applied to the elements of design that bring them together into one design. How
one applies these principles determines how successful a design may be.[2]

Unity/Harmony

According to Alex White, author of The Elements of Graphic Design, to achieve visual unity
is a main goal of graphic design. When all elements are in agreement, a design is considered
unified. No individual part is viewed as more important than the whole design. A good
balance between unity and variety must be established to avoid a chaotic or a lifeless
design.[3]

Methods

 Proximity: sense of distance between elements

 Similarity: ability to seem repeatable with other elements
 Continuation: the sense of having a line or pattern extend
 Repetition: elements being copied or mimicked numerous times
 Rhythm: is achieved when recurring position, size, color, and use of a graphic element has a
focal point interruption.
 Altering the basic theme achieves unity and helps keep interest.
Balance

It is a state of equalized tension and equilibrium, which may not always be calm. [3]

Types

The top image has symmetrical balance and the bottom image has asymmetrical balance

 Symmetry
 Asymmetrical produces an informal balance that is attention attracting and dynamic.
 Radial balance is arranged around a central element. The elements placed in a radial balance
seem to 'radiate' out from a central point in a circular fashion.
 Overall is a mosaic form of balance which normally arises from too many elements being put
on a page. Due to the lack of hierarchy and contrast, this form of balance can look noisy.

Hierarchy

A good design contains elements that lead the reader through each element in order of its
significance. The type and images should be expressed starting from most important to the
least important.

Scale/proportion

Using the relative size of elements against each other can attract attention to a focal point.
When elements are designed larger than life, scale is being used to show drama.[3]
Dominance/emphasis

Dominance is created by contrasting size, positioning, color, style, or shape. The focal point
should dominate the design with scale and contrast without sacrificing the unity of the
whole.[3]

Similarity and contrast

Planning a consistent and similar design is an important aspect of a designers work to make
their focal point visible. Too much similarity is boring but without similarity important
elements will not exist and an image without contrast is uneventful so the key is to find the
balance between similarity and contrast.[3]

Similar environment

There are several ways to develop a similar environment:[3]

 Build a unique internal organization structure.

 Manipulate shapes of images and text to correlate together.
 Express continuity from page to page in publications. Items to watch include headers,
themes, borders, and spaces.
 Develop a style manual and adhere to it.

Movement is the path the viewer’s eye takes through the artwork, often to focal areas. Such
movement can be directed along lines edges, shape and color within the artwork.

The elements and principles of design are the building blocks.

The elements of design are the things that make up a design. The Principles of design are
what we do to those elements. How we apply the principles of design determines how
successful the design is.

The elements of design

 LINE - The linear marks made with a pen or brush or the edge created when two
shapes meet.
 SHAPE - A shape is a self contained defined area of geometric (squares and circles),
or organic (free formed shapes or natural shapes). A positive shape automatically
creates a negative shape.
 DIRECTION - All lines have direction - Horizontal, Vertical or Oblique. Horizontal
suggests calmness, stability and tranquillity. Vertical gives a feeling of balance,
formality and alertness. Oblique suggests movement and action
 SIZE - Size is simply the relationship of the area occupied by one shape to that of
another.
 TEXTURE - Texture is the surface quality of a shape - rough, smooth, soft hard
glossy etc.
 COLOUR - Colour is light reflected off objects. Color has three main characteristics:
hue or its name (red, green, blue, etc.), value (how light or dark it is), and intensity
(how bright or dull it is).
The principles of design

1. BALANCE - Balance in design is similar to balance in physics. A large shape close to

the center can be balanced by a small shape close to the edge. Balance provides
stability and structure to a design. It’s the weight distributed in the design by the
placement of your elements.
2. PROXIMITY - Proximity creates relationship between elements. It provides a focal
point. Proximity doesn’t mean that elements have to be placed together, it means they
should be visually connected in someway.
3. ALIGNMENT - Allows us to create order and organisation. Aligning elements allows
them to create a visual connection with each other.
4. REPETITION - Repetition strengthens a design by tying together individual elements.
It helps to create association and consistency. Repetition can create rhythm (a feeling
of organized movement).
5. CONTRAST - Contrast is the juxtaposition of opposing elements (opposite colours on
the colour wheel, or value light / dark, or direction - horizontal / vertical). Contrast
allows us to emphasize or highlight key elements in your design.
6. SPACE - Space in art refers to the distance or area between, around, above, below,
or within elements. Both positive and negative space are important factors to be
considered in every design.

Color wheel

Boutet's 7-color and 12-color color circles from 1708

Wilhelm von Bezold's 1874 Farbentafel

A color wheel or color circle is an abstract illustrative organization of color hues around a
circle that shows relationships between primary colors, secondary colors, tertiary colors etc.

Some sources use the terms color wheel and color circle interchangeably;[1][2] however, one
term or the other may be more prevalent in certain fields or certain versions as mentioned
above. For instance, some reserve the term color wheel for mechanical rotating devices, such
as color tops or filter wheels. Others classify various color wheels as color disc, color chart,
and color scale varieties.[3]

As an illustrative model, artists typically use red, yellow, and blue primaries (RYB color
model) arranged at three equally spaced points around their color wheel.[4] Printers and others
who use modern subtractive color methods and terminology use magenta, yellow, and cyan
as subtractive primaries. Intermediate and interior points of color wheels and circles represent
color mixtures. In a paint or subtractive color wheel, the "center of gravity" is usually (but not
always[5]) black, representing all colors of light being absorbed; in a color circle, on the other
hand, the center is white or gray, indicating a mixture of different wavelengths of light (all
wavelengths, or two complementary colors, for example).

The arrangement of colors around the color circle is often considered to be in correspondence
with the wavelengths of light, as opposed to hues, in accord with the original color circle of
Isaac Newton. Modern color circles include the purples, however, between red and violet.[6]
Color scientists and psychologists often use the additive primaries, red, green and blue; and
often refer to their arrangement around a circle as a color circle as opposed to a color
wheel.[7]
Colors of the color wheel

A 1908 color wheel with red, green, and violet "plus colors" and magenta, yellow, and cyan blue
"minus colors"

The typical artists' paint or pigment color wheel includes the blue, red, and yellow primary
colors. The corresponding secondary colors are green, orange, and violet or purple. The
tertiary colors are red–orange, red–violet, yellow–orange, yellow–green, blue–violet and
blue–green.

A color wheel based on RGB (red, green, blue) or RGV (red, green, violet) additive primaries
has cyan, magenta, and yellow secondaries (cyan was previously known as cyan blue).
Alternatively, the same arrangement of colors around a circle can be described as based on
cyan, magenta, and yellow subtractive primaries, with red, green, and blue (or violet) being
secondaries.

Most color wheels are based on three primary colors, three secondary colors, and the six
intermediates formed by mixing a primary with a secondary, known as tertiary colors, for a
total of 12 main divisions; some add more intermediates, for 24 named colors. Other color
wheels, however, are based on the four opponent colors, and may have four or eight main
colors.

Goethe's Theory of Colours provided the first systematic study of the physiological effects of
color (1810). His observations on the effect of opposed colors led him to a symmetric
arrangement of his color wheel, "for the colours diametrically opposed to each other… are
those that reciprocally evoke each other in the eye." (Goethe, Theory of Colours, 1810 [8]). In
this, he anticipated Ewald Hering's opponent color theory (1872).[9]
The color circle and color vision

A 1917 four-way color circle related to the color opponent process

A color circle based on spectral wavelengths appears with red at one end of the spectrum and
violet at the other. A wedge-shaped gap represents colors that have no unique spectral
frequency. These extra-spectral colors, the purples, form from additive mixture of colors
from the ends of the spectrum.

In normal human vision, wavelengths of between about 400 nm and 700 nm are represented
by this incomplete circle, with the longer wavelengths equating to the red end of the
spectrum. Complements are located directly opposite each other on this wheel. These
complements are not identical to those in pigment mixing (such as are used in paint), but
when lights are additively mixed in the correct proportions appear as a neutral grey or
white.[10]

The color circle is used for, among other purposes, illustrating additive color mixture.
Combining two colored lights from different parts of the spectrum may produce a third color
that appears like a light from another part of the spectrum, even though dissimilar
wavelengths are involved. This type of color matching is known as metameric matching.[11]
Thus a combination of green and red light might produce a color close to yellow in apparent
hue. The newly formed color lies between the two original colors on the color circle, but they
are usually represented as being joined by a straight line on the circle, the location of the new
color closer to the (white) centre of the circle indicating that the resulting hue is less saturated
(i.e., paler) than either of the two source colors. The combination of any two colors in this
way are always less saturated than the two pure spectral colors individually.

Objects may be viewed under a variety of different lighting conditions. The human visual
system is able to adapt to these differences by chromatic adaptation. This aspect of the visual
system is relatively easy to mislead, and optical illusions relating to color are therefore a
common phenomenon. The color circle is a useful tool for examining these illusions.

Arranging spectral colors in a circle to predict admixture of light stems from work by Sir
Isaac Newton. Newton's calculation of the resulting color involves three steps: First, mark on
the color circle the constituent colors according to their relative weight. Second, find the
barycenter of these differently weighted colors. Third, interpret the radial distance (from the
center of the circle to the barycenter) as the saturation of the color, and the azimuthal position
on the circle as the hue of the color. Thus, Newton's color circle is a predecessor of the
modern, horseshoe-shaped CIE color diagram.

The psychophysical theory behind the color circle dates to the early color triangle of Thomas
Young, whose work was later extended by James Clerk Maxwell and Hermann von
Helmholtz. Young postulated that the eye contains receptors that respond to three different
primary sensations, or spectra of light. As Maxwell showed, all hues, but not all colors, can
be created from three primary colors such as red, green, and blue, if they are mixed in the
right proportions.

Color wheels and paint color mixing

There is no straight-line relationship between colors mixed in pigment, which vary from
medium to medium. With a psychophysical color circle, however, the resulting hue of any
mixture of two colored light sources can be determined simply by the relative brightness and
wavelength of the two lights.[11] A similar calculation cannot be performed with two paints.
As such, a painter's color wheel is indicative rather than predictive, being used to compare
existing colors rather than calculate exact colors of mixtures. Because of differences relating
to the medium, different color wheels can be created according to the type of paint or other
medium used, and many artists make their own individual color wheels. These often contain
only blocks of color rather than the gradation between tones that is characteristic of the color
circle.[12]

Color wheel software

Main article: Color tool

A number of interactive color wheel applications are available both on the Internet and as
desktop applications. These programs are used by artists and designers for picking colors for
a design. Another color software is Color Schemer Designer 3. It is a color scheme creation
design for graphic designers. It also shows the color space, identifies color schemes, and
previews on how the colors look on light and dark websites.[13]

HSV color wheel

A color wheel based on HSV, labeled with HTML color keywords

The HSL and HSV color spaces are simple geometric transformations of the RGB cube into
cylindrical form. The outer top circle of the HSV cylinder – or the outer middle circle of the
HSL cylinder – can be thought of as a color wheel. There is no authoritative way of labeling
the colors in such a color wheel, but the six colors which fall at corners of the RGB cube are
given names in the X11 color list, and are named keywords in HTML.[14]

Color schemes
Main article: Color scheme

Color schemes are logical combinations of colors on the color wheel.

In color theory, a color scheme is the choice of colors used in design for a range of media.
For example, the use of a white background with black text is an example of a common
default color scheme in web design.

Color schemes are used to create style and appeal. Colors that create an aesthetic feeling
together commonly appear together in color schemes. A basic color scheme uses two colors
that look appealing together. More advanced color schemes involve several colors in
combination, usually based around a single color—for example, text with such colors as red,
yellow, orange and light blue arranged together on a black background in a magazine article.

Color schemes can also contain different shades of a single color; for example, a color
scheme that mixes different shades of green, ranging from very light (almost white) to very
dark.

For a list of ways to construct color schemes, regarding properties such as

warmness/achromiticness/complementariness, see color theory.

Color theory
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

For the musician, see Color Theory.

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by
adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed.
(August 2008)

In the visual arts, color theory is a body of practical guidance to color mixing and the visual
effects of a specific color combination. There are also definitions (or categories) of colors
based on the color wheel: primary color, secondary color and tertiary color. Although color
theory principles first appeared in the writings of Leone Battista Alberti (c.1435) and the
notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci (c.1490), a tradition of "colory theory" began in the 18th
century, initially within a partisan controversy around Isaac Newton's theory of color
(Opticks, 1704) and the nature of so-called primary colors. From there it developed as an
independent artistic tradition with only superficial reference to colorimetry and vision
science.
Color abstractions

Additive color mixing

Subtractive color mixing

The foundations of pre-20th-century color theory were built around "pure" or ideal colors,
characterized by sensory experiences rather than attributes of the physical world. This has led
to a number of inaccuracies in traditional color theory principles that are not always remedied
in modern formulations.[citation needed]

The most important problem has been a confusion between the behavior of light mixtures,
called additive color, and the behavior of paint or ink or dye or pigment mixtures, called
subtractive color. This problem arises because the absorption of light by material substances
follows different rules from the perception of light by the eye.

A second problem has been the failure to describe the very important effects of strong
luminance (lightness) contrasts in the appearance of colors reflected from a surface (such as
paints or inks) as opposed to colors of light; "colors" such as browns or ochres cannot appear
in mixtures of light. Thus, a strong lightness contrast between a mid-valued yellow paint and
a surrounding bright white makes the yellow appear to be green or brown, while a strong
brightness contrast between a rainbow and the surrounding sky makes the yellow in a
rainbow appear to be a fainter yellow, or white.

A third problem has been the tendency to describe color effects holistically or categorically,
for example as a contrast between "yellow" and "blue" conceived as generic colors, when
most color effects are due to contrasts on three relative attributes that define all colors:

1. lightness (light vs. dark, or white vs. black),

2. saturation (intense vs. dull), and
3. hue (e.g., red, orange, yellow, green, blue or purple).
Thus, the visual impact of "yellow" vs. "blue" hues in visual design depends on the relative
lightness and intensity of the hues.

These confusions are partly historical, and arose in scientific uncertainty about color
perception that was not resolved until the late 19th century, when the artistic notions were
already entrenched. However, they also arise from the attempt to describe the highly
contextual and flexible behavior of color perception in terms of abstract color sensations that
can be generated equivalently by any visual media.

Many historical "color theorists" have assumed that three "pure" primary colors can mix all
possible colors, and that any failure of specific paints or inks to match this ideal performance
is due to the impurity or imperfection of the colorants. In reality, only imaginary "primary
colors" used in colorimetry can "mix" or quantify all visible (perceptually possible) colors;
but to do this, these imaginary primaries are defined as lying outside the range of visible
colors; i.e., they cannot be seen. Any three real "primary" colors of light, paint or ink can mix
only a limited range of colors, called a gamut, which is always smaller (contains fewer
colors) than the full range of colors humans can perceive.[citation needed]

Historical background

Color theory was originally formulated in terms of three "primary" or "primitive" colors—
red, yellow and blue (RYB)—because these colors were believed capable of mixing all other
colors. This color mixing behavior had long been known to printers, dyers and painters, but
these trades preferred pure pigments to primary color mixtures, because the mixtures were
too dull (unsaturated).

Goethe's color wheel from his 1810 Theory of Colours

The RYB primary colors became the foundation of 18th century theories of color vision, as
the fundamental sensory qualities that are blended in the perception of all physical colors and
equally in the physical mixture of pigments or dyes. These theories were enhanced by 18th-
century investigations of a variety of purely psychological color effects, in particular the
contrast between "complementary" or opposing hues that are produced by color afterimages
and in the contrasting shadows in colored light. These ideas and many personal color
observations were summarized in two founding documents in color theory: the Theory of
Colours (1810) by the German poet and government minister Johann Wolfgang von Goethe,
and The Law of Simultaneous Color Contrast (1839) by the French industrial chemist Michel
Eugène Chevreul.

Subsequently, German and English scientists established in the late 19th century that color
perception is best described in terms of a different set of primary colors—red, green and blue
violet (RGB)—modeled through the additive mixture of three monochromatic lights.
Subsequent research anchored these primary colors in the differing responses to light by three
types of color receptors or cones in the retina (trichromacy). On this basis the quantitative
description of color mixture or colorimetry developed in the early 20th century, along with a
series of increasingly sophisticated models of color space and color perception, such as the
opponent process theory.

Across the same period, industrial chemistry radically expanded the color range of lightfast
synthetic pigments, allowing for substantially improved saturation in color mixtures of dyes,
paints and inks. It also created the dyes and chemical processes necessary for color
photography. As a result three-color printing became aesthetically and economically feasible
in mass printed media, and the artists' color theory was adapted to primary colors most
effective in inks or photographic dyes: cyan, magenta, and yellow (CMY). (In printing, dark
colors are supplemented by a black ink, known as the CMYK system; in both printing and
photography, white is provided by the color of the paper.) These CMY primary colors were
reconciled with the RGB primaries, and subtractive color mixing with additive color mixing,
by defining the CMY primaries as substances that absorbed only one of the retinal primary
colors: cyan absorbs only red (−R+G+B), magenta only green (+R−G+B), and yellow only
blue violet (+R+G−B). It is important to add that the CMYK, or process, color printing is
meant as an economical way of producing a wide range of colors for printing, but is deficient
in reproducing certain colors, notably orange and slightly deficient in reproducing purples. A
wider range of color can be obtained with the addition of other colors to the printing process,
such as in Pantone's Hexachrome printing ink system (six colors), among others.

Munsell's color system represented as a three-dimensional solid showing all three color making
attributes: lightness, saturation and hue.

For much of the 19th century artistic color theory either lagged behind scientific
understanding or was augmented by science books written for the lay public, in particular
Modern Chromatics (1879) by the American physicist Ogden Rood, and early color atlases
developed by Albert Munsell (Munsell Book of Color, 1915, see Munsell color system) and
Wilhelm Ostwald (Color Atlas, 1919). Major advances were made in the early 20th century
by artists teaching or associated with the German Bauhaus, in particular Wassily Kandinsky,
Johannes Itten, Faber Birren and Josef Albers, whose writings mix speculation with an
empirical or demonstration-based study of color design principles.

Contemporary color theory must address the expanded range of media created by digital
media and print management systems, which substantially expand the range of imaging
systems and viewing contexts in which color can be used. These applications are areas of
intensive research, much of it proprietary; artistic color theory has little to say about these
complex new opportunities.[citation needed]

Traditional color theory

Complementary colors

Chevreul's 1855 "chromatic diagram" based on the RYB color model, showing complementary colors
and other relationships

Main article: Complementary color

For the mixing of colored light, Isaac Newton's color wheel is often used to describe
complementary colors, which are colors which cancel each other's hue to produce an
achromatic (white, gray or black) light mixture. Newton offered as a conjecture that colors
exactly opposite one another on the hue circle cancel out each other's hue; this concept was
demonstrated more thoroughly in the 19th century.[citation needed]

A key assumption in Newton's hue circle was that the "fiery" or maximum saturated hues are
located on the outer circumference of the circle, while achromatic white is at the center. Then
the saturation of the mixture of two spectral hues was predicted by the straight line between
them; the mixture of three colors was predicted by the "center of gravity" or centroid of three
triangle points, and so on.
Primary, secondary, and tertiary colors of the RYB color model

According to traditional color theory based on subtractive primary colors and the RYB color
model, which is derived from paint mixtures, yellow mixed with violet, orange mixed with
blue, or red mixed with green produces an equivalent gray and are the painter's
complementary colors. These contrasts form the basis of Chevreul's law of color contrast:
colors that appear together will be altered as if mixed with the complementary color of the
other color. Thus, a piece of yellow fabric placed on a blue background will appear tinted
orange, because orange is the complementary color to blue.

However, when complementary colors are chosen based on definition by light mixture, they
are not the same of the artists' primary colors. This discrepancy becomes important when
color theory is applied across media. Digital color management uses a hue circle defined
around the additive primary colors (the RGB color model), as the colors in a computer
monitor are additive mixtures of light, not subtractive mixtures of paints.

One reason the artist's primary colors work at all is that the imperfect pigments being used
have sloped absorption curves, and thus change color with concentration. A pigment that is
pure red at high concentrations can behave more like magenta at low concentrations. This
allows it to make purples that would otherwise be impossible. Likewise, a blue that is
ultramarine at high concentrations appears cyan at low concentrations, allowing it to be used
to mix green. Chromium red pigments can appear orange, and then yellow, as the
concentration is reduced. It is even possible to mix very low concentrations of the blue
mentioned and the chromium red to get a greenish color. This works much better with oil
colors than it does with watercolors and dyes.

So the old primaries depend on sloped absorption curves and pigment leakages to work,
while newer scientifically derived ones depend solely on controlling the amount of absorption
in certain parts of the spectrum.

Another reason the correct primary colors were not used by early artists is that they were not
available as durable pigments. Modern methods in chemistry were needed to produce them.

Warm vs. cool colors

The distinction between 'warm' and 'cool' colors has been important since at least the late
18th century.[1] It is generally not remarked in modern color science or colorimetry in
reference to painting, but is still used in design practices today.[citation needed] The contrast, as
traced by etymologies in the Oxford English Dictionary, seems related to the observed
contrast in landscape light, between the "warm" colors associated with daylight or sunset and
the "cool" colors associated with a gray or overcast day. Warm colors are often said to be
hues from red through yellow, browns and tans included; cool colors are often said to be the
hues from blue green through blue violet, most grays included. There is historical
disagreement about the colors that anchor the polarity, but 19th-century sources put the peak
contrast between red orange and greenish blue.

Color theory has described perceptual and psychological effects to this contrast. Warm colors
are said to advance or appear more active in a painting, while cool colors tend to recede; used
in interior design or fashion, warm colors are said to arouse or stimulate the viewer, while
cool colors calm and relax. Most of these effects, to the extent they are real, can be attributed
to the higher saturation and lighter value of warm pigments in contrast to cool pigments.
Thus, brown is a dark, unsaturated warm color that few people think of as visually active or
psychologically arousing.

Contrast the traditional warm–cool association of color with the color temperature of a
theoretical radiating black body, where the association of color with temperature is reversed.
For instance, the hottest stars radiate blue light (i.e., with shorter wavelength and higher
frequency) and the coolest radiate red.

The hottest radiating bodies (e.g. stars) have a "cool" color while the less hot bodies radiate with a
"warm" color. (Image in mired scale.)

Achromatic colors

Any color that lacks strong chromatic content is said to be unsaturated, achromatic, or near
neutral. Pure achromatic colors include black, white and all grays; near neutrals include
browns, tans, pastels and darker colors. Near neutrals can be of any hue or lightness.

Neutrals are obtained by mixing pure colors with white, black or grey, or by mixing two
complementary colors. In color theory, neutral colors are colors easily modified by adjacent
more saturated colors and they appear to take on the hue complementary to the saturated
color. Next to a bright red couch, a gray wall will appear distinctly greenish.

Black and white have long been known to combine well with almost any other colors; black
decreases the apparent saturation or brightness of colors paired with it, and white shows off
all hues to equal effect.[citation needed]
Tints and shades

Main article: Tints and shades

When mixing colored light (additive color models), the achromatic mixture of spectrally
balanced red, green and blue (RGB) is always white, not gray or black. When we mix
colorants, such as the pigments in paint mixtures, a color is produced which is always darker
and lower in chroma, or saturation, than the parent colors. This moves the mixed color toward
a neutral color—a gray or near-black. Lights are made brighter or dimmer by adjusting their
brightness, or energy level; in painting, lightness is adjusted through mixture with white,
black or a color's complement.

It is common among some painters to darken a paint color by adding black paint—producing
colors called shades—or lighten a color by adding white—producing colors called tints.
However it is not always the best way for representational painting, as an unfortunate result is
for colors to also shift in hue. For instance, darkening a color by adding black can cause
colors such as yellows, reds and oranges, to shift toward the greenish or bluish part of the
spectrum. Lightening a color by adding white can cause a shift towards blue when mixed
with reds and oranges. Another practice when darkening a color is to use its opposite, or
complementary, color (e.g. purplish-red added to yellowish-green) in order to neutralize it
without a shift in hue, and darken it if the additive color is darker than the parent color. When
lightening a color this hue shift can be corrected with the addition of a small amount of an
adjacent color to bring the hue of the mixture back in line with the parent color (e.g. adding a
small amount of orange to a mixture of red and white will correct the tendency of this
mixture to shift slightly towards the blue end of the spectrum).

Split primary colors

In painting and other visual arts, two-dimensional color wheels or three-dimensional color
solids are used as tools to teach beginners the essential relationships between colors. The
organization of colors in a particular color model depends on the purpose of that model: some
models show relationships based on human color perception, whereas others are based on the
color mixing properties of a particular medium such as a computer display or set of paints.

This system is still popular among contemporary painters,[citation needed] as it is basically a

simplified version of Newton's geometrical rule that colors closer together on the hue circle
will produce more vibrant mixtures. However, with the range of contemporary paints
available, many artists simply add more paints to their palette as desired for a variety of
practical reasons. For example, they may add a scarlet, purple and/or green paint to expand
the mixable gamut; and they include one or more dark colors (especially "earth" colors such
as yellow ochre or burnt sienna) simply because they are convenient to have premixed.[citation
needed]
Printers commonly augment a CYMK palette with spot (trademark specific) ink colors.

Color harmony

It has been suggested that "Colors seen together to produce a pleasing affective response are
said to be in harmony".[2] However, color harmony is a complex notion because human
responses to color are both affective and cognitive, involving emotional response and
judgement. Hence, our responses to color and the notion of color harmony is open to the
influence of a range of different factors. These factors include individual differences (such as
age, gender, personal preference, affective state, etc.) as well as cultural, sub-cultural and
socially-based differences which gives rise to conditioning and learned responses about color.
In addition, context always has an influence on responses about color and the notion of color
harmony, and this concept is also influenced by temporal factors (such as changing trends)
and perceptual factors (such as simultaneous contrast) which may impinge on human
response to color. The following conceptual model illustrates this 21st century approach to
color harmony:

Wherein color harmony is a function (f) of the interaction between color/s (Col 1, 2, 3, …, n)
and the factors that influence positive aesthetic response to color: individual differences (ID)
such as age, gender, personality and affective state; cultural experiences (CE), the prevailing
context (CX) which includes setting and ambient lighting; intervening perceptual effects (P)
and the effects of time (T) in terms of prevailing social trends.[3]

In addition, given that humans can perceive over 2.8 million different hues,[4] it has been
suggested that the number of possible color combinations is virtually infinite thereby
implying that predictive color harmony formulae are fundamentally unsound.[5] Despite this,
many color theorists have devised formulae, principles or guidelines for color combination
with the aim being to predict or specify positive aesthetic response or "color harmony". Color
wheel models have often been used as a basis for color combination principles or guidelines
and for defining relationships between colors. Some theorists and artists believe
juxtapositions of complementary color will produce strong contrast, a sense of visual tension
as well as "color harmony"; while others believe juxtapositions of analogous colors will elicit
positive aesthetic response. Color combination guidelines suggest that colors next to each
other on the color wheel model (analogous colors) tend to produce a single-hued or
monochromatic color experience and some theorists also refer to these as "simple
harmonies". In addition, split complementary color schemes usually depict a modified
complimentary pair, with instead of the "true" second color being chosen, a range of
analogous hues around it are chosen, i.e. the split compliments of red are blue-green and
yellow-green. A triadic color scheme adopts any three colors approximately equidistant
around a color wheel model. Feisner and Mahnke are among a number of authors who
provide color combination guidelines in greater detail.[6][7]

Color combination formulae and principles may provide some guidance but have limited
practical application. This is because of the influence of contextual, perceptual and temporal
factors which will influence how color/s are perceived in any given situation, setting or
context. Such formulae and principles may be useful in fashion, interior and graphic design,
but much depends on the tastes, lifestyle and cultural norms of the viewer or consumer.

As early as the ancient Greek philosophers, many theorists have devised color associations
and linked particular connotative meanings to specific colors. However, connotative color
associations and color symbolism tends to be culture-bound and may also vary across
different contexts and circumstances. For example, red has many different connotative and
symbolic meanings from exciting, arousing, sensual, romantic and feminine; to a symbol of
good luck; and also acts as a signal of danger. Such color associations tend to be learned and
do not necessarily hold irrespective of individual and cultural differences or contextual,
temporal or perceptual factors.[8] It is important to note that while color symbolism and color
associations exist, their existence does not provide evidential support for color psychology or
claims that color has therapeutic properties.[9]

Current status

Color theory has not developed an explicit explanation of how specific media affect color
appearance: colors have always been defined in the abstract, and whether the colors were inks
or paints, oils or watercolors, transparencies or reflecting prints, computer displays or movie
theaters, was not considered especially relevant. source insertJosef Albers investigated the
effects of relative contrast and color saturation on the illusion of transparency, but this is an
exception to the rule.[10] Known for his color theory paintings of the 1970s, Frederick Spratt
created diptychs consisting of flat rectangular panels of two different monochrome colors.[11]