Color theory: Difference between revisions

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{{Other uses}}

{{Use American English|date=August 2016}}

[[File:GoetheFarbkreis.jpg|right|thumb|[[Johann Wolfgang von Goethe|Goethe]]'s color wheel from his 1810 ''[[Theory of Colours]]'']]

'''Color theory''', or more specifically '''traditional color theory''', is a historical body of knowledge describing the behavior of colors, namely in [[color mixing]], [[color contrast]] effects, [[color harmony]], [[color scheme]]s and [[color symbolism]].<ref name="Handprint1">{{cite web |last1=MacEvoy |first1=Bruce |title=Color Theory |url=https://handprint.com/HP/WCL/wcolor.html |website=Handprint |access-date=8 February 2024}}</ref> Modern color theory is generally referred to as [[color science]]. While there is no clear distinction in scope, traditional color theory tends to be more subjective and have artistic applications, while color science tends to be more objective and have functional applications, such as in chemistry, astronomy or [[color reproduction]]. Color theory dates back at least as far as [[Aristotle]]'s treatise ''[[On Colors]]'' and [[Bharata_Bharata (sage)|Bharata's]]'s [[Natya_Shastra|''Nāṭya Shāstra'']]. A formalization of "color theory" began in the 18th century, initially within a partisan controversy over [[Isaac Newton]]'s theory of color (''[[Opticks]]'', 1704) and the nature of primary colors. By the end of the 19th century, a schism had formed between traditional color theory and color science.

== History ==

Color theory is rooted in antiquity, with early musings on color in [[Aristotle]]'s (d. 322 BCE) ''[[On Colors]]'' and [[Claudius Ptolemy]]'s (d. 168 CE) ''[[Optics (Ptolemy)|Optics]]''. The [[Natya_Shastra|''Nāṭya Shāstra'']] (d. 200 BCE) composed in [[Ancient India]], had an early, functional theory of color,<ref name="Natyashastra">{{cite web |url=https://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/the-natyashastra/d/doc210153.html |title=Chapter XXIII - 'Costumes and Make-up' |last=Shastri |first=Babulal |publisher=Motilal Banarasidass |date=April 16, 2025 |website=Wisdomlib |access-date=April 16, 2025}}</ref> considering four colours as primary, [[black]], [[blue]], [[yellow]] and [[red]]. It also describes the production of derived colors from [[Primary_color|primary colors]].

Color theory is rooted in antiquity, with early musings on color in [[Aristotle]]'s (d. 322 BCE) ''[[On Colors]]'' and [[Claudius Ptolemy]]'s (d. 168 CE) ''[[Optics (Ptolemy)|Optics]]''. The [[Natya_Shastra|Nāṭya Shāstra]] (d. 200 BCE) composed in [[Ancient India]], had an early, functional theory of color,<ref name="Natyashastra">{{cite web |url=https://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/the-natyashastra/d/doc210153.html |title=Chapter XXIII - Costumes and Make-up |last=Shastri |first=Babulal |publisher=Motilal Banarasidass |date=April 16, 2025 |website=Wisdomlib |access-date=April 16, 2025}}</ref> considering four colours as primary, [[black]], [[blue]], [[yellow]] and [[red]]. It also describes the production of derived colors from [[Primary_color|primary colors]].

{{Quote box

|quote = The bluish white (kāraṇḍava) colour, is made up of the white and the blue, and the yellowish white colour (pāṇḍu) of the white and the yellow. The lotus (padma) colour is made up of the white and the red, and the green (harit) colour, of the yellow and the blue. The dark red (kāṣāya) colour is made up of the blue and the red, and the pale-red (gaura) colour of the red and the yellow. These are the derivative colours. Besides these there are [many] minor colours which may be made up of three or four [original] colours.

|author = [[Bharata_(sage)|Bharata]]

|source = ''[[Natya_Shastra|Nāṭya Shāstra]]'', Chapter XXIII - "Costumes and Make-up".

}}

The influence of light on color was investigated and revealed further by [[al-Kindi]] (d. 873) and [[Ibn al-Haytham]] (d. 1039). [[Ibn Sina]] (d. 1037), [[Nasir al-Din al-Tusi]] (d. 1274), and [[Robert Grosseteste]] (d. 1253) discovered that contrary to the teachings of Aristotle, there are multiple color paths to get from black to white.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Smithson |first1=H.E. |last2=Dinkova-Bruun |first2=G. |last3=Gasper |first3=G.E.M. |last4=Huxtable |first4=M. |last5=McLeish |first5=T.C.B. |last6=Panti |first6=C.P. |title=A three-dimensional color space from the 13th century |journal=J. Opt. Soc. Am. A |date=2012 |volume=29 |issue=2 |pages=A346–A352 |doi=10.1364/josaa.29.00A346|pmid=22330399 |pmc=3287286 |bibcode=2012JOSAA..29A.346S }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Kirchner |first1=E. |title=Color theory and color order in medieval Islam: A review |journal=Color Research & Application |date=2013 |volume=40 |issue=1 |pages=5–16 |doi=10.1002/col.21861}}</ref> More modern approaches to color theory principles can be found in the writings of [[Leone Battista Alberti]] (c. 1435) and the notebooks of [[Leonardo da Vinci]] (c. 1490).[[File:Color diagram Charles Hayter.jpg|thumb|Page from 1826 ''A New Practical Treatise on the Three Primitive Colours Assumed as a Perfect System of Rudimentary Information'' by [[Charles Hayter]]]]

[[Isaac Newton]] (d. 1727) worked extensively on color theory, helping and developing his own theory from stating the fact that white light is composed of a spectrum of colors, and that color is not intrinsic to objects, but rather arises from the way an object reflects or absorbs different wavelengths. His 1672 paper on the nature of white light and colours forms the basis for all work that followed on colour and colour vision.<ref>{{Citation |last=Marriott |first=F.H.C. |titledate=Colour Vision: Introduction2014 |dateorig-year=1962 (print) |worktitle=TheColour VisualVision: Process |pages=219–229Introduction |url=https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/B9781483230894500212 |access-datework=2025-03-02The Visual Process |publisher=Elsevier |languagepages=en219–229 |doi=10.1016/b978-1-4832-3089-4.50021-2 |isbn=978-1-4832-3089-4 |access-date=2025-03-02 |language=en|url-access=subscription }}</ref>

The RYB primary colors became the foundation of 18th-century theories of [[color vision]],{{Citation needed|date=September 2018}} as the fundamental sensory qualities that are blended in the perception of all physical colors, and conversely, in the physical mixture of [[pigment]]s or [[dye]]s. These theories were enhanced by 18th-century investigations of a variety of purely psychological color effects, in particular the contrast between "complementary" or opposing hues that are produced by color afterimages and in the contrasting shadows in colored light. These ideas and many personal color observations were summarized in two founding documents in color theory: the ''[[Theory of Colours]]'' (1810) by the German poet [[Johann Wolfgang von Goethe]], and ''The Law of Simultaneous Color Contrast'' (1839) by the French industrial chemist [[Michel Eugène Chevreul]]. [[Charles Hayter]] published ''A New Practical Treatise on the Three Primitive Colours Assumed as a Perfect System of Rudimentary Information'' (London 1826), in which he described how all colors could be obtained from just three.

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Subsequently, German and English scientists established in the late 19th century that color perception is best described in terms of a different set of primary colors—red, green and blue-violet ([[RGB color model|RGB]])—modeled through the additive mixture of three monochromatic lights. Subsequent research anchored these primary colors in the differing responses to light by three types of [[Cone cell|color receptors]] or ''cones'' in the [[retina]] ([[trichromacy]]). On this basis the quantitative description of the color mixture or colorimetry developed in the early 20th century, along with a series of increasingly sophisticated models of [[color space]] and color perception, such as the [[opponent process]] theory.

[[File:Munsell-system.svg|thumb|left|[[Munsell color system|Munsell]]'s 1905 color system represents colors using three color-making attributes, ''value'' (lightness), ''chroma'' (saturation), and ''hue''.|left]]

Across the same period, industrial chemistry radically expanded the color range of lightfast synthetic pigments, allowing for substantially improved saturation in color mixtures of dyes, paints, and inks. It also created the dyes and chemical processes necessary for color photography. As a result, three-color printing became aesthetically and economically feasible in mass printed media, and the artists' color theory was adapted to primary colors most effective in inks or photographic dyes: cyan, magenta, and yellow (CMY). (In printing, dark colors are supplemented by black ink, called "key," to make the [[CMYK]] system; in both printing and photography, white is provided by the color of the paper.) These CMY primary colors were reconciled with the RGB primaries, and subtractive color mixing with additive color mixing, by defining the CMY primaries as substances that ''absorbed'' only one of the retinal primary colors: cyan absorbs only red (−R+G+B), magenta only green (+R−G+B), and yellow only blue-violet (+R+G−B). It is important to add that the CMYK, or process, color printing is meant as an economical way of producing a wide range of colors for printing, but is deficient in reproducing certain colors, notably orange and slightly deficient in reproducing purples. A wider range of colors can be obtained with the addition of other colors to the printing process, such as in [[Pantone]]'s [[Hexachrome]] printing ink system (six colors), among others.

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Although flawed in principle,<ref>{{cite web |last1=Lucariello |first1=Joan |last2=Naff |first2=David |title=How Do I Get My Students Over Their Alternative Conceptions (Misconceptions) for Learning? Applications of Psychological Science to Teaching and Learning modules |url=https://www.apa.org/education-career/k12/misconceptions |website=APA.org |publisher=American Psychological Association |access-date=12 August 2024}}</ref> the split-primary system can be successful in practice, because the recommended blue-biased red and green-biased blue positions are often filled by near approximations of magenta and cyan, respectively, while orange-biased red and violet-biased blue serve as secondary colors, tending to further widen the mixable gamut.

This system is in effect a simplified version of Newton's geometrical rule that colors closer together on the hue circle will produce more vibrant mixtures. A mixture produced from two primary colors, however, will be much more highly saturated than one produced from two secondary colors, even though the pairs are the same distance apart on the hue circle, revealing the limitations of the circular model in the prediction of color-mixing results. For example, a mixture of magenta and cyan inks or paints will produce vivid blues and violets, whereas a mixture of red and blue inks or paints will produce darkened violets and purples, even though the angular distance separating magenta and cyan is the same as that separating red and blue.

== Color contrast ==

{{See also|color contrast}}

In [[Michel Eugène Chevreul|Chevreul's]]'s 1839 book ''The principles of harmony and contrast of colours'',<ref name=Chevreul>{{cite book |last1=Chevreul |first1=Michel Eugène |title=De la loi du contraste simultané des couleurs |date=1839}}</ref> he introduced the law of color contrast, stating that colors that appear together (spatially or temporally) will be altered as if mixed with the complementary color of the other color, functionally boosting the color contrast between them. For example, a piece of yellow fabric placed on a blue background will appear tinted orange because orange is the complementary color to blue. Chevreul formalized three types of contrast:<ref name=Chevreul/>

* ''simultaneous contrast'', which appears in two colors viewed side by side

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=== Warm vs. cool colors <span class="anchor" id="Warm vs. cool colours"></span>===

The distinction between "warm" and "cool" colors has been important since at least the late 18th century.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.handprint.com/HP/WCL/color12.html |title=color temperature |publisher=handprint |date=2009-04-19 |access-date=2011-06-09}}</ref> The difference (as traced by etymologies in the [[Oxford English Dictionary|''Oxford English Dictionary'']]), seems related to the observed contrast in landscape light, between the "warm" colors associated with daylight or sunset, and the "cool" colors associated with a gray or overcast day. Warm colors are often said to be hues from red through yellow, browns, and tans included; cool colors are often said to be the hues from blue-green through blue violet, most grays included. There is a historical disagreement about the colors that anchor the polarity, but 19th-century sources put the peak contrast between red-orange and greenish-blue.{{NoteTag|The traditional warm/cool association of a color is reversed relative to the [[color temperature]] of a theoretical radiating [[black body]]; the hottest [[star]]s radiate blue (cool) light, and the coolest radiate red (warm) light.}}

Color theory has described perceptual and psychological effects to this contrast. Warm colors are said to advance or appear more active in a painting, while cool colors tend to recede; used in interior design or fashion, warm colors are said to arouse or stimulate the viewer, while cool colors calm and relax.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Singh|first=Satyendra|date=2006-01-01|title=Impact of color on marketing|url=https://doi.org/10.1108/00251740610673332|journal=Management Decision|volume=44|issue=6|pages=783–789|doi=10.1108/00251740610673332|issn=0025-1747|url-access=subscription}}</ref> Most of these effects, to the extent they are real, can be attributed to the higher saturation and lighter value of warm pigments in contrast to cool pigments; brown is a dark, unsaturated warm color that few people think of as visually active or psychologically arousing.

== Color harmony and color schemes ==