Color Theory

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Color is a powerful tool in graphic design. It can be used to attract attention, evoke emotion and help a design look aesthetically pleasing. But what colors should be used? In order to choose the right colors and colors combinations, it is important that the graphic designer have a basic understanding of color theory. Color theory is the study of color in art and design, their relationship with each other and principles used to create harmonious color schemes.

The concept of the color wheel was invented by Sir Issac Newton in 1666 when he bent the color spectrum, or the range of all visible light into the shape of a circle. It is circular diagram used to visually show the relationship between colors and can be used to logically choose color schemes.

Primary Colors

These are red, blue and yellow. These three colors are the most basic colors on the color wheel. They cannot be made from any other colors but all other colors on the color wheel are made from them.

Secondary Colors

These are green, orange and purple. They are formed by mixing equal amounts of the two primary colors that are beside them on the color wheel. They can be used together to create a nicely balanced color scheme.

Tertiary Colors

These are blue-green, yellow-orange, red-purple and blue-purple. They are formed by mixing a primary color and a secondary color together. Tertiary colors helps create a wider color pallette.

Tints and Shades

Lighter versions of colors are formed by adding black and are called shades. This is illustrated on the color wheel by adding two inner rings for tints and two outer rings for shades. The middle ring is the blue

Monochromatic Colors

These are colors with variations in tint and shade such as green, light green and dark green. Although there is very little variety in this colors, they can be used to create a simple, clean and elegant color scheme with minimum contrast.

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Comments

Colours make our surrounding beautiful. It brightens it up. Nice article. Keep it up!👍

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4 years ago

Thank you

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4 years ago

Nice article. I never knew about the term Monochromatic colors. When doing arts, I just use what color I think is appropriate. Thank you for this information.

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4 years ago

Thanks for the comment, I really appreciate

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4 years ago

Colors are good ways of expressing things in term of arts. They add beauty to structures and signify certain qualities in real life.

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4 years ago

That's right. Thank you for the comment

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4 years ago

Colour are good ways of expressing ways things in term of art.. Very nice article.. Thnx for share with us.. Keep it up.. I support u

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4 years ago

Thanks for your comment and support

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4 years ago

Very elaborative. I knew about the primary colors that all colors are a combination of RGB. Rest app information was new to me

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4 years ago

Thanks you so much

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4 years ago

But accorsing to science, ivery person sees a different colors. The way we look at the object it will reflect to our eyes. Colors depends on the person looking

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4 years ago

Wow, I never really took note to colors in this way before. Your article is helping me see the importance of color in graphic design. I knew some few things about color before, like In the visual arts, color theory is a body of practical guidance to color mixing and the visual effects of a specific color combination, and that The foundations of pre-20th-century color theory were built around "pure" or ideal colors, characterized by different sensory experiences rather than attributes of the physical world. Great article anyways.

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4 years ago