1. Understanding Color
Chapter 4: The Vocabulary of Color

2. The three qualities of
color are:
•Hue
• Value
• Saturation

3. RedGreen
BlueYellow
Hue means
the name of the color.

4. In science, the colors of light are called
spectral colors.

5. Spectral colors can be measured precisely by
their different wavelengths (or frequencies.)

6. The words “hue” and “color” are often
used interchangeably.

7. In everday speech (including our
text book), the word “color” is
used in two different ways.
It can mean:
It can mean:
• the HUE of something, or
• the complete visual experience of the
color’s hue, value and saturation
together.

8. The word “hue” should never, however,
be used to mean anything other than the
name of a color.
Chroma is a synonym for hue.

9. Chromatic: having hue

10. Achromatic: without hue

11. Polychromatic: having many hues

12. Monochromatic: having one hue only

13. It has been theorized that the average person can
distinguish about 150 colors of light and every one can
be described using one of two of only six words:

14. Red

15. Orange

16. Yellow

17. Green

18. Blue

19. Violet

20. YellowYellow
Yellow
Yellow
A color is called by the name of its
most obvious, or dominant, hue.

21. Nearly all color
samples include more
than one hue, but
one hue is most
apparent and others
are present in smaller
proportion.

22. A sample may
seem to be pure
yellow until it is
placed next to a
different yellow
sample.

23. Suddenly, one
yellow is seen to
contain a bit of
green, the other a
fraction of orange.

24. Both are called
yellow because
yellow
predominates in
each.

25. Using the word
“contains” helps to
evaluate colors.

26. “This yellow
contains some
orange.”
“This yellow
contains some
green.”

27. The artists’
spectrum is a
circle that
illustrates hues
in their natural
(spectral)
order.

28. The spectrum of visible light (additive color) is
linear and is displayed according to wavelength.

29. The artists’
spectrum is also
fixed in its order of
colors, but it has six
hues instead of seven
and they are
presented as a
continuous circle.

30. The artists’
spectrum is also
called the
color wheel or
color circle.

31. There are too many
hues in the range of
human vision to
include all of them in
one circle...

32. ...so the artists’
spectrum is a
sort of visual
outline, or
synopsis, of all
visible hues.

33. The basic
spectrum is
made up of six
hues: red,
yellow, blue,
orange, green,
and violet

34. The expanded
spectrum
includes
yellow-orange,
red-orange, red-
violet,
blue-violet,
blue-green, and
yellow-green.

35. The artists; spectrum is limited to six or twelve hues
only because this is a concise, easily illustrated figure.

36. It can be expanded to any number of hues as long as
the added colors are inserted at regular intervals in
all hue ranges.

37. Color wheels come in all types...

38. But they all recognize the same sequence of colors.

39. All color circles include the primary hues in some
way, and all follow the same color order.

40. A chromatic scale is any linear series of hues in
spectrum order.
Each step in the progression is a change in hue.

41. The words “cool” and “warm” are used to describe
two opposing qualities of hue.

42. Warm colors are reds, oranges, yellows, and the
steps between them.

43. Cool colors are blues, greens, violets, and the steps
between them.

44. The primary colors are weighted toward the warm.

45. Only blue is cool, while both red and yellow are
considered warm.

46. As a result, the entire spectrum is more heavily
“warm” than it is “cool.”

47. Blue is the polar extreme of cool, and orange, made
of red and yellow, is the polar extreme of warm.

48. Warmth and coolness in colors are not absolute
qualities. Any color, even a primary, can appear
warmer or cooler relative to another color.

49. Warmth and coolness in colors are not absolute
qualities. Any color, even a primary, can appear
warmer or cooler relative to another color.

50. Analogous colors are hues that are adjacent on the
artists’ spectrum

51. They are described in various ways.

52. For the purposes of this class, analogous colors are
simply colors that are next to each other on the
color wheel.

53. And while it is true that the most harmonious
analogous groupings are made up of even intervals of
hue...

54. ...all analogous color schemes achieve a sense of
harmony.

55. The text book claims that they never contain all
three primary colors.

56. But when you expand your analogous color schemes to
include hues that contain the third primary–as long as the
colors are next to each other–you still achieve a harmonious
color scheme.

57. Remember that
analogy is not
confined to pure
colors.
Colors that have
been diluted in any
way can also be
analogous–no
matter what their
value or
saturation.

58. Complementary colors are hues that are
opposite one another on the artists’ spectrum.

59. Together, the two are called complements, or a
complementary pair.

60. The basic complementary pairs of the artists’
spectrum are:

61. Yellow and violet

62. Blue and orange

63. Red and green

64. In each of these
pairs, one half is a
primary color and
the other half is the
secondary that is a
mixture of the
remaining two
primaries.

65. It is important to note that the three
basic complementary pairs are different
from each other in how much they
contrast with each other.

66. Because the complements vary in value,
their contrast is more or less accordingly.

67. Red and green

68. Orange and blue

69. Yellow and violet

70. Other
complementay
pairs are less
contrasting
because each
color contains
one primary in
common with
its opposite.

71. For instance, red-violet and yellow-green
each contain blue.

72. No matter what the
value or saturation of a
color, it maintains at
all times a
complementary
relationship with its
opposite.

73. Ignore your book on
the subject of
tertiary color!

74. For the purposes
of this class,
tertiaries are
colors that are
mixed with their
complement.

75. There are an
infinite amount of
colors that can be
produced by
mixing colors
with their
complement.

76. As you can see, many tertiary colors resemble the color we
call “brown,” and others approach the color we call “gray.”

77. But remember that brown and gray are not hues.

78. Black, gray and white are achromatic -
meaning “without color.”

79. Absolute blacks and whites exist only in the
medium of light.

80. In subtractive media, blacks and whites
always have some colorant that gives them a
suggestion of hue.

81. True grays, or mixtures of black and white,
are also achromatic.

82. Subtractive grays are characterized as either
warm or cool.

83. Value refers to the relative light and dark in
a color.

84. Hue is
circular and
continuous,
but value is
linear and
progressive.

85. Value exists whether or not hue is present.

86. The colors of the artists’ spectrum (or color
wheel) have different values.

87. White is the lightest possible value, and black is the
darkest possible value. All other colors fall somewhere
in between.

88. Only value contrast
makes objects
distinguishable from
their background.

89. The degree of contrast
between light and dark
areas determines the
strength, or graphic
quality, of an image.

90. Differences between form and their background
may be further emphasized by contrasts of hue or
saturation, but difference in value is the only factor
in the ability to see a distinct edge between colors.

91. The closer in value an image is to its
background, the harder it is to see.

92. However, high contrast images are not always desirable.
Strong contrasts of dark and light induce lateral
inhibition, and can fatigue the eyes.

93. One of the defining characteristics of a line is that it
contrasts with the background.
(The other is that it is longer than it is wide.)

94. When blocks of color are similar in value, they are
difficult to make out...

95. ...but the thinnest of contrasting line between them
creates an immediate separation.

96. The placement of different values relative to one
another within an image give it individual identity.

97. In order to transpose an image from one color to
another, the number and placement of values within the
image must be identical.

98. Value is also associated with the idea of luminosity. A
hue that is luminous reflects a great deal of light,
appears light, and is high in value.

99. The artists’ spectrum illustrates colors at evenly spaced
intervals of hue, but not of evenly spaced intervals of value.

100. A tint is a hue that has white added to it.

101. A shade is a hue that has black added to it.

102. A tone is a hue that has gray added to it.

103. This is different than
in your text book.
Take notice!!!

104. A monochromatic value scale is a single
hue illustrated as a full range of values in even
steps, including both tints and shades.

105. Any hue can be illustrated as a full range of tints
and shades, from near-white to near-black.

106. A chart of seven
steps of equal
value in different
hues illustrates
how a single step
of value may
contain both tints
and shades. On a
limited chart such
as this one, some
saturated hues
may not appear
at all.

107. It is easy to
determine value
differences in
gray scale but
much harder
when comparing
value in a hue.

108. It is especially
hard when
comparing values
in two different
hues.

109. Even complements
with the highest hue
contrast can be made
unreadable by
manipulating the
value.

110. Saturation (or chroma)
refers to the hue intensity.

111. A saturated color is a color at its fullest expression
of hue. It is a color at maximum chroma.

112. Saturation is a
comparative
term. It
describes the
contrast
between dull
and vivid.

113. Saturation, like value, is linear and progressive.

114. The beginning of a saturation scale is a color that
is hue-intensive. The end step is a color so dull
that its hue can not be identified.

115. Although they are sometimes mixed up, saturation
is a color quality that is distinct from value.

116. Shades are already reduced in saturation because
they contain black, so it is instinctive to think of
muted colors as dark. But any hue or tint can be
reduced in saturation without changing its value.

117. One way to do this is to mix a hue with a gray of
the same value. This is what we call a “tone.”

118. When white is
mixed with a hue, it
changes
saturation.
It also changes
value.

119. When black is
mixed with a hue, it
changes
saturation.
It also changes
value.

120. When gray is mixed
with a hue, it
changes
saturation.
But it does NOT
change value.

121. Another way to reduce the saturation of a hue is to
add its complement.
+ =

122. Another way to reduce the saturation of a hue is to
add its complement.

123. There are an infinite number of variations within
this type of mixture.
And for the purposes of this class, ALL of these
different colors are called tertiary colors.

124. Within the
tertiary spectrum,
we can recognize
other distinctions.

125. To help those in color studies indicate the degrees
of saturation within a mixture like this, we use
other descriptive terms.

126. The hues at maximum chroma are called
Prismatic

127. The next step in saturation are called
Muted

128. The next step in saturation are called
Chromatic Grays

129. The least saturated tertiaries are called
Achromatic Grays

130. Theoretically, they are called achromatic because
there is no discernible hue.
In practice, though, the achromatic gray or the mixture
of any two complements is the middle point where
neither hue dominates.

131. Keep in mind that this point is subjective and can be
different for different individuals.
?

133. The term “theoretical gray” is used in the
text book to indicate a concept used by color
theorists to characterize a perfect tertiary
color: one of no discernible hue.

134. In theory, there should be a middle point between all
complements that is the same.
But in practice, it does not exist.
For the purposes of this class, theoretical gray is the
same thing as achromatic gray.

135. Some of the most interesting colors result from mixed
complements that have been tinted to raise their value.
These are the light neutrals you see in many
consumer goods.

136. The exuberance of saturated color is easily found in
nature, but muted colors are by far the greatest part of
our visual world.

137. And remember, that it is the CONTRAST between
these different qualities of color that draw our
attention to them.

138. And remember, that it is the CONTRAST between
these different qualities of color that draw our
attention to them.