Color theory: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 22:16, 14 December 2024

Revision as of 22:16, 14 December 2024

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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]]), seems related to the observed contrast in landscape light, between the "warm" colors associated with ТЙсьdaylightdaylight 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}}</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.