COLOR THEORY
Color (American English) or colour (Commonwealth English) is the visual perception based on
the electromagnetic spectrum. Though color is not an inherent property of matter, color perception is
related to an object's light absorption, reflection, emission spectra and interference. For most
humans, colors are perceived in the visible light spectrum with three types of cone
cells (trichromacy). Other animals may have a different number of cone cell types or have eyes
sensitive to different wavelength, such as bees that can distinguish ultraviolet, and thus have a
different color sensitivity range. Animal perception of color originates from different
light wavelength or spectral sensitivity in cone cell types, which is then processed by the brain.
Colors have perceived properties such as hue, colorfulness (saturation) and luminance. Colors can
also be additively mixed (commonly used for actual light) or subtractively mixed (commonly used for
materials). If the colors are mixed in the right proportions, because of metamerism, they may look
the same as a single-wavelength light. For convenience, colors can be organized in a color space,
which when being abstracted as a mathematical color model can assign each region of color with a
corresponding set of numbers. As such, color spaces are an essential tool for color
reproduction in print, photography, computer monitors and television. The most well-known color
models are RGB, CMYK, YUV, HSL and HSV.
Because the perception of color is an important aspect of human life, different colors have been
associated with emotions, activity, and nationality. Names of color regions in different cultures can
have different, sometimes overlapping areas. In visual arts, color theory is used to govern the use of
colors in an aesthetically pleasing and harmonious way. The theory of color includes the color
complements; color balance; and classification of primary
colors (traditionally red, yellow, blue), secondary colors (traditionally orange, green, purple)
and tertiary colors. The study of colors in general is called color science or colorology.
Physical properties
Th
e visible spectrum perceived from 390 to 710 nm wavelength
Electromagnetic radiation is characterized by its wavelength (or frequency) and its intensity. When
the wavelength is within the visible spectrum (the range of wavelengths humans can perceive,
approximately from 390 nm to 700 nm), it is known as "visible light".[1]
Most light sources emit light at many different wavelengths; a source's spectrum is a distribution
giving its intensity at each wavelength. Although the spectrum of light arriving at the eye from a given
direction determines the color sensation in that direction, there are many more possible spectral
combinations than color sensations. In fact, one may formally define a color as a class of spectra
that give rise to the same color sensation, although such classes would vary widely among different
species, and to a lesser extent among individuals within the same species. In each such class, the
members are called metamers of the color in question. This effect can be visualized by comparing
the light sources' spectral power distributions and the resulting colors.
Spectral colors
Main article: Spectral color
The familiar colors of the rainbow in the spectrum—named using the Latin word
for appearance or apparition by Isaac Newton in 1671—include all those colors that can be
produced by visible light of a single wavelength only, the pure spectral or monochromatic colors. The
spectrum above shows approximate wavelengths (in nm) for spectral colors in the visible range.
Spectral colors have 100% purity, and are fully saturated. A complex mixture of spectral colors can
be used to describe any color, which is the definition of a light power spectrum.
The spectral colors form a continuous spectrum, and how it is divided into distinct colors
linguistically is a matter of culture and historical contingency.[2] Despite the
ubiquitous ROYGBIV mnemonic used to remember the spectral colors in English, the inclusion or
exclusion of colors is contentious, with disagreement often focused on indigo and cyan.[3] Even if the
subset of color terms is agreed, their wavelength ranges and borders between them may not be.
The intensity of a spectral color, relative to the context in which it is viewed, may alter its perception
considerably according to the Bezold–Brücke shift; for example, a low-intensity orange-yellow
is brown, and a low-intensity yellow-green is olive green. In color models capable of representing
spectral colors,[4] such as CIELUV, a spectral color has the maximal saturation. In Helmholtz
coordinates, this is described as 100% purity.
