Joshua Reichmann

Color Theory

Interactive System Design


Color is also known as hue. Each hue is a specific spot on the color spectrum. To work with color, there are different attributes you should know about: value, contrast and brightness, and saturation. The range from black to white is called value. Contrast is the degree of separation between values. Whereas brightness adds white to an image, the lack of brightness tones the image. Saturation is the measurement of color intensity. The lack of saturation is like a black and white television. The three additive primary colors – red, green, blue – were determined in 1861 by Scottish physicist Sir James Clerk-Maxwell. When the colors come together in various combinations, they produce other colors in the spectrum – with all three combining to produce white light. This, in a simplified manner, is how I understand color is achieved on a computer monitor. The subtractive primaries found by Louis Ducos Du Hauron are cyan, magenta and yellow; mixing these colors you get a color that closely resembles black. Take away these colors, and you are left with white. This is the primary system used in printing, commonly referred to as CYMK (with the K representing a fourth ink, black). The fourth ink is needed to produce a "true" dark black. For the most part, there are no definites with color. The perception of any color is relative to the other colors surrounding it. When a color is placed near other colors, it takes on a different hue because of the way we perceive colors in relation to one another. Value is relative. Value comes into concern for Web design the way Macintosh and Windows machines display colors (they are always lighter on a Mac OS system). The point is to make sure your composition looks great...