COLOR THEORY

TERMS
 MUNSELL COLOR SYSTEM
• A color space that specifies colors based on three
color dimensions: hue, value (lightness), and chroma
(color purity).
• Created by Professor Albert H. Munsell in the first
decade of the 20th century and adopted by the
USDA as the official color system for soil research in the
1930s.
The Munsell color system, showing: a circle of
hues at value 5 chroma 6; the neutral values
from 0 to 10; and the chromas of purple-blue
(5PB) at value 5.
HUE
• The most basic of color terms
• Basically denotes an object’s color.
 CHROMA
• Refers to the purity of a color
• A hue with high chroma has no black, white or
gray in it.
• Adding white, black or gray reduces its
chroma.
• Can be thought of as the brightness of a color
in comparison to white.
VALUE
• Could also be called “lightness.”
• Refers to how light or dark a
color is.
• Lighter colors have higher values.
For example, orange has a
higher value than navy blue or
dark purple. Black has the lowest
value of any hue, and white the
highest.
TONES
• created when gray is added to a hue.
• Tones are generally duller or softer-looking
than pure hues.
SHADE
• Created when black is added to a hue, making
it darker.
TINT
• Formed when white is added to a hue,
lightening it.
• Very light tints are sometimes called pastels,
but any pure hue with white added to it is a
tint.
SATURATION
• Refers to how a hue appears under particular
lighting conditions.
COLOR THEORY
PSYCHOLOGY
Red: Passion, Love, Anger
Orange: Energy, Happiness, Vitality
Yellow: Happiness, Hope, Deceit
Green: New Beginnings, Abundance, Nature
Blue: Calm, Responsible, Sadness
Purple: Creativity, Royalty, Wealth
Black: Mystery, Elegance, Evil
Gray: Moody, Conservative, Formality
White: Purity, Cleanliness, Virtue
Brown: Nature, Wholesomeness, Dependability
Tan or Beige: Conservative, Piety, Dull
Cream or Ivory: Calm, Elegant, Purity
COLOR THEORY
SCHEMES
Monochromatic Color Scheme

The monochromatic color

scheme uses variations in
lightness and saturation of a
single color.
Analogous Color Scheme
Uses colors that are adjacent to each other on the
color wheel.
One color is used as a dominant color while others
are used to enrich the scheme.
Complementary color scheme

Consists of two colors that are

opposite each other on the color
wheel.
Split complementary scheme
A variation of the standard
complementary scheme. It
uses a color and the two colors
adjacent to its complementary.
TRIADIC Color scheme
Uses three colors equally spaced around the color
wheel.
This scheme is popular among artists because it
offers strong visual contrast while retaining
harmony and color richness.
VIOLET – ORANGE - GREEN
YO – BR - RV
RED YELLOW BLUE
RED YELLOW BLUE
PMS
(PANTONE MATCHING SYSTEM)
• System of thousands of numbered swatches.
• Also called “spot” colors.

This is similar to picking paint at the hardware store to paint your

walls: You refer to swatches, choose by number and then the color is
pre-mixed before application. This is good for applications that are
predominantly one color (or two) such as a business card.

Printing a 1 or 2 color job can be less expensive than a 4-color job

because there are fewer printing plates made.

Creates the most accurate color match and the sharpest details.
CMYK = CYAN, MAGENTA, YELLOW, BLACK.
ALSO CALLED 4-COLOR, OR PROCESS

CMYK refers to full color printing.

Note: because of the potential confusion with the words

and abbreviations for blue and black, blue is called cyan
and abbreviated C, and black is abbreviated K.
CMYK

While using PMS colors is best for something that prints in limited colors,
imagine if you had to pre-mix each color used within a photograph. It would be
nearly impossible. Instead, the CMYK or Four-Color process is used. For every
possible shade and color, this process determines the percentages of each of the
four colors (CMYK) needed to make that color. This is then translated into very
small dots. The human eye blends these colors together to see the full spectrum
of color.

CMYK is used whenever there are full color images, or when the number of
colors makes it more practical than using just PMS colors. CMYK is also the
primary system for digital printing, as specific pantone colors can not be put
into a inkjet or laser printer.
RGB is the color system for computer monitors, video,
etc. Without going into the science, it is critical to
understand that PMS and CMYK are for printed pieces
and RGB is for computer applications such as web sites.
That does NOT mean a color will look the same from one monitor to
the next. Variability with screen brightness, lighting conditions, and
hue & contrast settings will render the exact same color differently
from one computer monitor to the next.

For reference, Visible Logic’s green is: r140 / g198 / b63.

This is also given a hexadecimal number of: 8cc63f You can see that
green in the logo at the top of this web site.