Basic Attributes

of Color
ID 121
 Whether using the additive or subtractive primaries, each
color must be described in terms of its physical properties.

These properties are independent of each other, and each

one must be measured or defined in order to fully describe
the color.

Adams, S., Stone, T., & Morioka, N. (2008). Color Design Workbook: A Real World Guide to Using Color in Graphic Design (First Edition). Rockport Publishers.
 Scientific descriptions of color, or colorimetry, involve the
specification of these color properties in either a subjective or
objective system of measurement.

The subjective system describes color in terms of hue,

saturation, and brightness (HSB), while the objective system
measure the dominant wavelength, purity, and luminance of
colors.

Adams, S., Stone, T., & Morioka, N. (2008). Color Design Workbook: A Real World Guide to Using Color in Graphic Design (First Edition). Rockport Publishers.
 Hue
the common name of a color that indicates its
position in the visible spectrum or on the color
wheel
determined by the specific wavelength of the
color in a ray of light
The generic names of spectral colors are: red,
orange, yellow, green, blue and violet

Adams, S., Stone, T., & Morioka, N. (2008). Color Design Workbook: A Real World Guide to Using Color in Graphic Design (First Edition). Rockport Publishers.
 Hue
The words “COLOR” and “HUE” are not
synonymous. Hue is a specific attribute of color.

Example:
Reddish Brown is the color brown with a red hue.
Black is a color with no hue.

Adams, S., Stone, T., & Morioka, N. (2008). Color Design Workbook: A Real World Guide to Using Color in Graphic Design (First Edition). Rockport Publishers.
 Organizing Hue
Hue circle
6 parts:
3 PRIMARY
3 SECONDARY
Colors in between are called
INTERMEDIARY / TERTIARY COLORS
 Organizing Hue
PRIMARY COLORS
▪Colors that cannot be broken down into
other colors and are the building blocks for
all other colors.
 Organizing Hue

SECONDARY COLORS
▪The middle mixtures of two primary
colors.
 Organizing Hue

INTERMEDIATE / TERTIARY COLORS

▪The mixture of a primary and secondary
color.
 Organizing Hue

NEUTRAL COLORS
▪Colors not found in the color wheel. They
include black, white, gray, brown and tan.
Slow Fashion
Slow Interiors
 Organizing Hue

ANALOGOUS
▪The colors that are next to each other on
the spectrum or hue circle.
 Organizing Hue

COMPLEMENTARY
▪Colors that are opposites, defined by the
afterimage of any given color.
 Value

Color value refers to the lightness or darkness of

the hue
 Value

Adding white to a hue produces a high-value

color, often called a TINT.
Adding black to a hue produces a low-value
color, called a SHADE.
 Defining Value

(synonyms: Luminance, Brightness)

The lightness or darkness of a color.
Black, White, and Gray are colors of pure value
and have no hue.
 Defining Value

Value can be actually measured as a percentage

of reflected light from 100% (white – total
reflectance) to 0% (black – total absorption). A
true middle gray is literally 50/50 (50%
reflectance, 50% absorption)
 Defining Value

We use visual comparison within a given context

to determine if a color is lighter or darker than its
neighbor:
 Defining Value
If two colors of analogous hue share an edge, you
can tell they are close in value if the edge is soft
and far apart in value if the edge is hard.

If two colors of the opposite hue share an edge,

you can tell that they are close in value if the edge
“vibrates” or shimmers and far apart in value if
the edge is hard.
 Relative Value
A color’s value can also be assessed by its
specific relationship to the value scale (the range
of grays from white to black, also known as gray
scale)
This is known as its RELATIVE VALUE
 Relative Value
All colors, including pure hues, have a relative
value.
A pure yellow is close to white in its reflectance.
A pure red and green are closer to middle gray.
Keep in mind that the color’s value, reflectance, is
also influenced by the surface texture.
 Manipulating Value
Doing one of the following alters the value of a
color, but not its hue:
Tinting (adding white).
Tints of color tend to look soft and ethereal.
Shading (adding black)
Dark colors feel heavy and dense.
Value is not altered if a color is mixed with
another color or gray of the same value
Importance of Value
Understanding the difference
between hue and value can add If we subtract perception of hue from
enormously to our understanding of our world, we would still perceive form.
color.

The perception and representation of On the other hand, if the world

form is entirely dependent on value, or suddenly converted to pure hue, we
the contrast of light and dark, and not would be in big trouble.
on its color.
Importance of Value
Our ability to perceive depth, spatial
Recent research has shown that the
relationships, three dimensionally and
part of our brain that responds to light
volume (form), as well as movement or
/ dark is several inches away from the
stasis, derives from the part of our
part of our brain that responds to hue.
brain that responds exclusively to
differences in value without regard to
hue.
Importance of Value
Before our eyes and brain have fully If you are a visually sensitive individual,
developed in infancy, we see only light you may already know this intuitively.
and dark. In a few weeks following The observed world is experienced
birth, our brains develop the ability to mostly as infinite gradations of light
perceive hue. and dark accented by equally subtle
modulations of hue.
Once our brains have fully developed, In other words, our primary visual
hue continues to play a secondary role experience is of value, not hue.
to value in how we perceive the world
around us.
Importance of Value
In other century, mechanical
reproduction and color processing But this is a recent phenomenon, the
have added significant bursts of implications of which are interesting to
saturated color to our perceptual ponder.
world.

The psychological and emotional

The more time we spend gazing at
components of hue cannot be
printed and electronic media, the more
understated and go way beyond mere
this becomes the norm.
perception.
Importance of Value
If we imagine life without hue – as a
black and white movie, for example – Hue is like the spice that makes the
we can appreciate how important and visual “food” we need for survival
inextricably linked the perception of worth eating.
hue is to our experience of the world.

As long as we are in the presence of

light, we are constantly under the
influence of hue, even though we may
not even be aware of it.
 Saturation
Also called CHROMA or INTENSITY
Refers to the brightness and dullness of a color.
A color is at full intensity when not mixed with
black or white – a pure hue.
Refers to the amount of white light (or gray paint)
mixed with the hue.
 Defining Saturation
Purity of a color
100% saturation is defined as the absence of
white, black or gray
0% saturation is the absence of a hue.
Neutral colors are by definition low saturation, or
low chroma, and can be either ACHROMATIC
(having no hue, as in gray scale), or CHROMATIC
(having hue, as in tertiary colors)
 Assessing Saturation

As with the other attributes of color, saturation is

relative and therefore a matter of comparison.
For example:
If comparing ten different reds, for the
reddest red is the most saturated.
 How to change the
saturation of a hue
When you mix complementary colors together,
you produce a dull tone.
However, when you put complementary colors
side by side, you increase their intensity.
This effect is called SIMULTANEOUS CONTRAST
– each color simultaneously intensifies the visual
brightness of the other color.
 Manipulating Saturation

Making it duller or more neutral by adding gray

(black + white) to a color.
By adding its COMPLIMENT
When changing colors this way, the color
produced it called a TONE.
 Manipulating Saturation

Pastels are less saturated colors.

It’s obvious that intense‚ vivid colors stand out.
Even though cool colors tend to recede‚ a vivid
blue will draw more attention to itself than a
creamy‚ dull orange.
 Manipulating Saturation

When we add gray (black and white) to a color‚ it

starts to become dull and desaturated.
Dull colors help to reduce tension and give
compositions a meditative‚ dreamy mood.
Saturation vs Brightness
Saturation can be the most difficult of By definition, adding white makes a
color’s attributes to agree on. color less saturated.

Picking the reddest red out of a line Even more confusing is when a violet
line-up sounds easy enough, and or green pigment in its most saturated
often it is, but what happens if white form (right out of a tube) is so dark that
is added to make a bright pink that you can’t really perceive its hue until
appears more chromatically intense you add white.
than the original?
Saturation vs Brightness
When hue is added to a color
So which of the two colors has more
(providing it is not a complement), it
chroma, the one that looks almost
becomes more INTENSE, which is
black or the one with white in it?
technically specific to SATURATION.

It can be hard to separate brightness

and intensity. When white is added to The variables of different colorants can
a dark color, it becomes BRIGHTER, create anomalies to saturation.
which is technically specific to VALUE.
Saturation vs Brightness
The brighter, less saturated color can Suffice it is to say that color by its very
appear more intense, even if that nature cannot be defined like words in
sometimes amounts to a contradiction a dictionary. After all, it is literally a
in terms. matter of perception.