Color Theory

A color scheme is the range of colors used for a design. The combination of colors creates style and aesthetic appeal. There are many different types of color schemes, including the ones below:

Monochromatic Colors -- all the shades or tints of one particular color, from light to dark. This creates a more subdued effect.

Analogous Colors -- groups of colors next to each other on the color wheel, usually including one dominant primary, one secondary, and two tertiary colors. This creates a feeling of a unified 'temperature' and there isn't too much contrast.

Complementary Colors -- colors which cancel each other out to make black (for pigments) or white (for light). They have high contrast and are visually striking, so they're sometimes called opposite colors.

Split Complementary -- a color and two analogous colors next to its complement. This also produces high contrast but is less aggressive.

Color Triads -- colors equally spaced on a color wheel (corners of a triangle). This makes for high contrast but it also creates balance and harmony.

The Color Wheel is an illustration of the primary, secondary, and tertiary colors in relation to each other.

The 3 primary colors are Blue, Red, and Yellow. They can be combined to form the 3 secondary colors, Violet, Orange, and Green. The 6 tertiary colors are formed by mixing primaries with secondaries. They are Blue-Green, Blue-Violet, Red-Violet, Red-Orange, Yellow-Orange, and Yellow-Green.