olor is the byproduct of the spectrum of light, as it is reflected or absorbed, as received by the human eye and processed by the

human brain. It's also a great design element! Here's a surface level overview of how it all works:

The world is full of light. Visible light is made of seven wavelength groups. These are the colors you see in a rainbow: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violetthe Mr. ROY G. BIV you might have been introduced to in elementary school science. The reddish colors are the long wavelengths. The greenish colors are the mid-size wavelengths. The bluish color are the short wavelengths.

When light hits objects, some of the wavelengths are absorbed and some are reflected, depending on the materials in the object. The reflected wavelengths are what we perceive as the object's color. Our eyes are the input channels, if you will, for this light. One portion of the eye is called the retina and it contains four types of light sensors. First are the rods, which record brightness and darkness and from which we "see" a sort of coarse sketch of the world. Next are three types of cones, each one optimized to absorb a different spectrum range of visible light. One set of cones absorbs long wavelengths, the reds. Another absorbs mid-size wavelengths, the greens. The third absorbs short wavelengths, the blues. Together, these rods and cones gather the information that our brain then processes into one combined image. If you think this stuff is cool, Kimball's Biology Page's vision section explains the process in more detail and has a great scanning electron micrograph image of real rods and cones. What this all means for the designer is that color is a function of light and biologywhich means that no two people see color exactly the same. It also means that reproduced color can be described, defined, and modeled through a variety of mathematical and visual lenses called color spaces. Combine these two factors and you can quickly see how colorand its theory and usecan quickly take on the tone of a religious war. The goal is to understand that color isn't an exact science and your job is to use it in the best way for your specific application.

Additive Color The tools we use to describe color are different when the color is printed than from when it is projected. Projected color is additive. Printed color is subtractive. Visible light is a small part of the electromagnetic spectrum, between the wavelengths of 400 and 700 nm (nanometers = billionth of a meter). In 1666 Sir Isaac Newton used a glass prism to refract white light at different angles according to wave length. He saw a rainbow of colors, which he passed through a second prism to re-form white light. He concluded that white light is a mixture of all the colors of the visible spectrum.

Sir Newton was playing with additive color. No light (or color) is black. All light (all colors) is white.

Each color of the spectrum has a specific frequency. Adding different colors of light together increases the number of frequencies present and the more colors you add the closer it becomes to white. Therefore, light is called an additive color mixing system. This type of color mixing is used in computer monitors, TV sets, and to illuminate actors on stage. Subtractive Color The color we see on paper is created using a subtractive model, where the frequencies that are not absorbed form the color we see. When you project light, you are sending out frequencies of light that add together to form a certain color beam. Think of it as painting with light. In contrast, the color we put down on paper works exactly the opposite. The color we we see is the spectrum of light which is reflected by the paper or by the ink, crayon, or marker we put on the paper. Historically artists and designers have not worked with light but with paints and pigments. Colors of paint absorb most of the light frequencies and reflect back only the wavelength that defines the color you see. Mixing different paints makes a darker color because more of the light frequencies are absorbed. This method of mixing colors is called subtractive because each color absorbs, light frequencies, subtracting them from the total mixture.

A subtractive color model is the very first type of color we learn as a child, when we are taught that the three primary colors of red, yellow, and blue can be mixed to form all colors. The printing inks magenta, yellow, and cyan are essentially a more sophisticated version of our childhood crayons.

Color Gamut The gamut is the set of possible colors within a color system. No one system can reproduce all possible colors in the spectrum. Unfortunately for designers, it is not possible to create every color in the spectrum with either additive or subtractive colors. Both systems can reproduce a subset of all visible color, and while those subsets generally overlap, there are colors which can be reproduced with additive color and not with subtractive color and vise-versa.

The colors that can be created by each system are called a "gamut". The ACM diagram to the left, shows the relative gamuts of additive (monitor display) and subtractive (printed) color. The larger area on the graph represents all visible color.

1998 ACM Describing Color There are lots of different ways to describe color. These are some of the most common terms you'll hear. Click on any one to learn more.

Term: Hue Saturation Value (or Intensity or Lightness) Primary Secondary Tertiary Complementary Triad Analogous RGB CMYK

What it describes: The name we give to a distinct part of the spectrum"red" "yellow" "purple" The "purity" of a colorhow much Grey is or isn't in it. The "brightness" or "darkness" of a color, the amount of a brightness, light, or white in the color. The three defining colors of a color wheel, from which all other colors are built. The three colors created by blending two primary colors. The six colors created from the three primary and three secondary colors. Colors at opposite sides of the color wheel, high contrast with each other. Set of three colors equidistant around the color wheel. Colors next to each other on the color wheel. Red, Green, Blue. The primary colors in the additive model. Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, Black. The primary colors in the printer's version of the subtractive model. Black is added to the mix for sharpness of the printed image.

If you want to dig even deeper into color theory, both Kodak and press/pre-press vendor Heidleberg offer some good reality-based educational material. Check out the Kodak Digital Learning Center, which has a tutorial series on color theory.

Color Wheels

Color wheels are a way to arrange colors, making it easier to select a palette that works. A color wheel arranges colors around the edges of a circle. Primary colors are in the middle. Three common color wheels are the artist's wheel, the subtractive wheel, and the additive wheel. Color wheels are helpful in the discussion and selection of colors using any color model. A standard color wheel has 12 distinct hues, but does not have any visual information about saturation or value. These 12 hues can be classified in three categories, primary, secondary, and tertiary. Primary colors are the defining colors of the wheel. In the color wheels below, they appear in the center as well as equally spaced around the circle. On the traditional artist's color wheel red, blue, and yellow are primary colors. Secondary colors are the three colors that are equal distant from the primary colors. On the traditional artist's color wheel violet, green, and orange are secondary colors. Tertiary colors are the colors between each primary and secondary color. On the traditional artist's color wheel red-violet, blue-violet, blue-green, yellow-green, yellow-orange, and red-orange are tertiary colors.

The artist's color wheel. This color wheel uses red, yellow, and blue as primary colors. This is used for mixing paints.

The subtractive color wheel. This color wheel uses the printing inks cyan, magenta, and yellow as primary colors. Note: Because cyan, magenta, and yellow inks do not combine to make black, the printing process adds black as a fourth ink.

Additive Color. This color wheel displays the additive colors used for projected light. When mixed together the additive primaries form white. The primaries are red, green and blue. These colors are extremely bright because light that is projected can be far more intense than printed color.

Color Categories on the Color Wheel Color wheels groups colors in ways that can be the start of a palette. A color wheel arranges colors around the edges of a circle and each color has a relationship to each other. The relationships are actually based on the physics of lightwaves, but a visual circle is much easier to use! Colors can be be placed into categories such as complementary, split-complementary, triad, analogous and temperature to describe how two or three colors relate to each other on the color wheel.

Complementary colors opposite each other provide high color contrast. If you stare at a color then look away at a blank wall, you'll see an afterimage in the color's complementary color.

Split-Complementary colors are those on either side of the complementary color. They contrast, but not as strongly as complementary colors.

Triad colors equidistant provide a balanced color scheme and can be a good place to start exploring palettes.

Analogous colors are those adjacent to each other on the wheel. These colors share enough common attributes that they can work well with each other ... although they provide little contrast.

Hue Hue is what most people think of when we say "color." Hue is the name of a distinct color of the spectrumred, green, yellow, orange, blue, and so on. It is the particular wavelength frequency.

This strip shows a range of hues. It is easy to point to "red" or "blue" or "yellow." Saturation Saturation is the "purity" of the color. Saturation refers to the amount of white light (or gray paint) mixed with the hue. Pastels are less saturated colors. Both of these samples below have a hue we would call "blue" but their saturation is different.

F u l l y s a t u r a t e d c o l o r s a r e v e r y r i c h a n d b r i g h t .

1 0 0 % b l u e i s a v e r y s a t u r a t e d c o l o r

L e s s s a t u r a t e d c o l o r s l o o k m u d d i e r , o r l e s s p u r e .

s t e e l b l u e h a s g r a y u n d e r t o n e s

High Saturated Colors As saturation decreases, all colors become a value of gray. You can experience reduced saturation by setting your monitor to gray-scale. Since some pure hues are darker that others, the resulting desaturated grays will also be darker -- for example, compare the blue with the yellow in this chart. Low Saturation Colors

Value (Intensity, Lightness, Brightness) The value (sometimes called lightness or intensity or brightness) of a color is the amount of light or white it contains. Value refers to the intensity of light present. When light is at its fullest intensity, colors will become bright, at its least intensity, colors become dim. Unlike saturation, there isn't necessarily "less" of the color -- it is just not as intense. You might think of value as being a bit like the dimmer switch on your dining room light or the brightness knob on your computer's monitor. Turn up the switch, and the value grows brighter.

A higher value creates a whiter, brighter color.

Color Models A color model is simply an agreed-upon way of describing color. Because color is so subjective and so important in our perception of the world, there have been, over time, many different models created to explain, define, and specify color. Sometimes the promotion of various models has taken on the flavor of an operating system war! ("My color model is better than yours!")/p> In day to day practice, you'll most likely use two models: HSV and RGB. You'll also hear a lot about CMYK. HSV stands for Hue, Saturation, and Value, and it uses these three concepts to describe a color. You'll encounter it most often in your illustration and image editing programs. RGB stands for Red, Green, and Blue, and uses these three

concepts to define a color. You'll use this in specifying colors within CSS or HTML code. Your image editing programs might also provide tools for picking color this way. Most programs provide you ways to translate the values of one model into the values of another. For exmaple, you can usually find the hex value of a color you've selected from an HSV color wheel -- the hex value is an RBG representation of that color. CMYK is the color model used for printing. If you are using your illustration and image editing programs to prepare material for printing, you may want to work within the CMYK space from the very beginning. Pantone, another term you might hear, is an extensive and widely-used set of color inks and many programs let you pick specific Pantone colors as well. As with CMYK, this is important only if you are taking your work to a printing press or trying to match a printed color on a Web site. HSV Model Taken together, hue, saturation, and value combine to form the HSV color model. HSV is the color selection model used most often in illustration and image programs, like Fireworks and Freehand. Color selection based on these criteria is often presented as a color wheel, with hues along the outer edge at full saturation, and with saturation decreasing as you move to the center of the circle. Value or intensity is adjusted with a brightness bar. Hue is presented as an angle point, while saturation and value are meaureed as a percentage between 0 and 100:

To create HSV colors on the computer you select a hue and saturation on the color wheel. Hues are around the edge of the wheel, saturation increases with the distance from the center. Value is selected from a dark to light slider.

RGB RGB stands for red, green, bluethe three colors that make up an image on a monitor. The RGB color model is an additive model used for displaying images on a computer monitor or other screen device. When the three primary colors, red, green, and blue, are combined they make a white light. When all are absent, there is black. Projected colors often feel much brighter than their subtractive model counterparts. To create RGB colors on the computer you must specify percentages of each of the primary colors. Color is controlled by moving the sliders:

This purple color is a mix of 56% red, 5% green, 61% blue:

CMYK CMYK stands for cyan, magenta, yellow, black -- the four colors that make up the standard printing process. The CMYK color model is a subtractive model used for printing on printing presses and many color computer printers. When the three primary colors, cyan, magenta, and yellow, are combined together they do not produce a rich black, so black ink is added as a fourth color. To create CMYK colors on the computer you must specify percentages of the primary colors. Color is controlled by moving the sliders.:

For example, this purple color is a mix of 5% cyan, 56% magenta, 0% yellow, and 39% black:

Process printing is the printing of images on paper using overlapping dots of cyan, magenta, yellow, and black (CMYK) inks to create full color, continuous tones. If you look at a printed photo with a loupe, you'll see it is really made of many small dots of these four colors. Many color computer printers, especially those designed to print photographs, use CMYK inks also.

Original full color photograph.