Color theory: Difference between revisions

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{{Short description|Principles to describe the practical behavior of colourscolors}}

{{Distinguish|colourimetrycolorimetry}}

{{Other uses}}

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

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

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

== History ==

ColourColor theory is rooted in antiquity, with early musings on colourcolor in [[Aristotle]]'s (d. 322 BCE) ''[[On ColoursColors]]'' and [[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 colourcolor,<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 colourscolors from [[Primary_color|primary colourscolors]].

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The influence of light on colourcolor 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 colourcolor 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=ColourColor theory and colourcolor order in medieval Islam: A review |journal=ColourColor Research & Application |date=2013 |volume=40 |issue=1 |pages=5–16 |doi=10.1002/col.21861}}</ref> More modern approaches to colourcolor 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 colourcolor theory, helping and developing his own theory from stating the fact that white light is composed of a spectrum of colourscolors, and that colourcolor 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. |date=2014 |orig-year=1962 (print) |title=Colour Vision: Introduction |url=https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/B9781483230894500212 |work=The Visual Process |publisher=Elsevier |pages=219–229 |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 colourscolors 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 colourscolors, 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 colourcolor effects, in particular the contrast between "complementary" or opposing hues that are produced by colourcolor afterimages and in the contrasting shadows in colouredcolored light. These ideas and many personal colourcolor observations were summarisedsummarized in two founding documents in colourcolor 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 colourscolors could be obtained from just three.

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

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

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

For much of the 19th century artistic colourcolor theory either lagged behind scientific understanding or was augmented by science books written for the lay public, in particular ''Modern Chromatics'' (1879) by the American physicist [[Ogden Rood]], and early colourcolor atlases developed by [[Albert Munsell]] (''Munsell Book of Color'', 1915, see [[Munsell colourcolor system]]) and [[Wilhelm Ostwald]] (Color Atlas, 1919). Major advances were made in the early 20th century by artists teaching or associated with the German [[Bauhaus]], in particular [[Wassily Kandinsky]], [[Johannes Itten]], [[Faber Birren]] and [[Josef Albers]], whose writings mix speculation with an empirical or demonstration-based study of colourcolor design principles.

== Color mixing ==