Color Theory
for web developers
Color Theory
for web developers
To start thinking about color, we need a common language when talking about color.
Elementary students are introduced to the color wheel, which is a visual representation of the ordering of colors based on the three primary colors, red, yellow and blue, colors that can not be achieved by mixing other pigments together. Other colors are produced by mixing the primary colors together. That system of color is referred as subtractive color.
As web developers, we do not mix pigments, but instead light, which of composed of three primary colors, red, green, and blue. This is due the nature of the photoreceptors in our eye. A more useful color wheel for a web developer, is one that uses the three "primary" retinal colors of red, green and blue, often referred to as the visual color wheel. This system of color is referred to as an additive system. All known perception of colors falls into one or the other system.
The RGB model is not intuitive unless you think of it as multidimensional. A better way to visualize it may to be to think of the color space as a cone of light with the center being white light and the deep tip being no light. This is frequently referred to as the HSV color space