(4) Color Theory

color theory

• Collection of rules and guidelines designers use to communicate with users through appealing color schemes in visual interfaces.

• Uses the color wheel and knowledge about human optical ability, psychology, and culture.

color wheel, color harmony, the way they are used

basic categories

isaac newton, 1666

• who and when did the color wheel was developed?

• the first circular diagram of colors

• It is the visible spectrum placed on a wheel.

red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet.

spectrum of colors (highest to lowest wavelength)

color theory of moses harris

• Published “The Natural System of Colours” in 1766.

color theory of moses harris

• Discussed colors created using three “grand or principle” colors: red, yellow, blue.

• Focused on relationships between colors and how they are created.

johann wolfgang von goethe

• Explored color through ideas of light, darkness, brightness, and obscurity—color as a degree of darkness. poet

isaac newton

• Proposed that red, yellow, and blue are primary colors from which all others are derived.

primary colors

• Red, yellow, blue.

• Cannot be formed by mixing; all other colors come from these three hues.

secondary colors 

• green, orange and purple

• formed by mixing the primary colors

tertiary colors

• Yellow orange, red orange, red purple, blue purple, blue green, yellow green.

• Formed by mixing primary and secondary colors, resulting in two-toned color names.