People who do not know much about color and art do not know what artists and designers are talking about when they use color terminologies. When you are working on a website for your business,
it is a good idea to have some working knowledge of color terminologies.
Common Art Color Terminology
Some of the common color terminologies that you will see when start working with color include terms like hue, chromaticity, tone, and shade. There will be many other terms and it is a good idea that you learn about color so that you have a website that looks great and has consistency from monitor to monitor. Each color has an assigned number and you should learn the numbers of the colors that you use because you will have accurate color usage that way, especially if you are doing design work on different computers.
Color Terms Explained
These are the terms that you should know when working with website design:
- Hue is the pure color or combination of two pure colors. Pure colors are the ones made from the original primary colors where you get results like greenish-yellow or magenta.
- Tint is a term that artists use and it involves adding white to colors. Tints are always lighter than the pure hues.
- Shade is another term that artists use, but this term involves adding black to a hue. Therefore, shades can be darker than the original hue.
- Grayscale is simply a term for varying shades of gray. Grayscale can be very attractive when it is accompanied by pops of bright, saturated colors.
- Saturated colors are colors that retain their hue. Artists, especially digital artists deal with saturation and whether color is diluted or pure. Pure colors have 100% saturation.
- Blue and yellow or red and green make up what is called a chroma, because the colors are chromatic or achromatic on a scale.
Relationships on the Color Wheel
There is a basic color theory that deals with color and the relationships between different colors. There is a color wheel that always has the same colors in the same order. The idea of the color wheel is that when you choose colors based on their positions on the wheel.
Analogous Colors
When you choose colors that are right next to each other on the color wheel, they are called analogous. These would be three similar shades of blue or orange, or even red, violet, and indigo.
Complimentary Colors
Complimentary colors are colors that are opposite each other on the color wheel. These would be pairings like green and violet or blue and yellow.
Natural Relationships
Another way to select colors is by using the idea of nature as a pair. Pairing bright colors like red and orange with green, like flowers, is a great way to choose colors, too.
Paired Colors
One color can look completely different when it is paired with different colors. Red looks very different when it is paired with black, red, or orange. The same goes for purple, especially when it is paired with reddish-purple or a bluish-purple.
Monochromatic and Modern
If you are looking for a harmonious look with one major color, you can work with monochromatic color design. This is the idea that you design with one color in different shades or tones. This creates a minimalist look that is very up to date and mod.
There are other color ideas that will work for web design and one of them is to simply select colors that you really like, but limit your colors to three that look good together.
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