Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2019/01/30/colorsupplyyy-a-perfectly-sim.html
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Red is a primary color, because you can mix it from yellow and magenta.
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That’s awesome! I’ve messed around with RGB colors, but they’re unsatisfying. They might work for engineering, but human eyes aren’t monitors. I’ve never seen anything quantifying ideas like complimentarity, but I’m sure somebody, somewhere…
Red and green are not complimentary colors!
I have a color blind designer friend who uses a lot of widgets like this to work. When you can’t see exact shade you need to be fairly careful that colors actually look good together. But they aren’t generally useful to him unless they output panatone or hex color codes or something. Since he can’t match the colors accurately by sight, and needs to replicate things in other software.
It depends on the color system.
It’s primary in RGB (addative light). And secondary in CMYK (subtractive). And there are alternate sets of colors used in both models.
Complementary.
And if they aren’t, then some of my artwork has been doing color theory very wrong.
I apologize for my misspelling, but my criticism of their color wheel is on-point.
If, as a designer, you truly want to choose maximally awful color pairs, the complement of red is cyan, not green. But red and green is a pretty awful color combination too.
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No.
No. That’s not what complementary means here.
This isn’t physics or math, this is perception.
(Although it is probably true that that can maximize eyestrain under certain conditions.)
Like anything else, color can be used badly, with bad results.
The successes are pretty easy to find, though:
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Nonsense. I look good in red.
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Yes.
Red and green can be complimentary colors, in that they can get along very well at times. But the opposite color of red is indeed cyan, and the opposite color of green is magenta.
In fact, their color wheel is off in many ways.
Again. It depends on the color system.
In RGB Red’s opposite is Cyan.
In CMYK Red’s opposite is Green.
The color wheel doesn’t seem to be off. It just seems to be using a different color system than you’re familiar with.
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What does “complementary” mean in terms of perception?
If I stare at something red for 30 seconds or so, then quickly look at a white surface, the after-image I see is cyan, not green.
Surely magenta’s opposite is green in CMYK? Red is still opposite cyan.
Looks really handy, thanks, I have to try to use more of those tools.
Color wheels are like scales in music theory, you can use them to get great results if you use them to sample traditionally pleasing combinations, and filter that through subjective taste.
You can use scales to identify off-notes, but having every note in tune is no guarantee that the music is enjoyable or bearable.
They’re not pure science, as media have different gamuts, and eyes are not uniform. They’re helpful and generalized frameworks.
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Eh I probably crossed up my color models which is something I’m prone to.
But red green are complementary in multiple models.
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They are in RYB (traditional artists’ color wheel), of course, and in NCS.
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And there you go. This one may be of limited use because it’s unlabeled and seems to only provide the one.
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