Color Wheel

			Red 0°/360° 255 0 0
Magenta 300° 255 0 255						Yellow 60° 255 255 0
Blue 240° 0 0 255						Green 120° 0 255 0
			Cyan 180° 0 255 255

Primary & Complementary

(Secondary) Colors

The six colors are divided into two categories, additive and subtractive.

Additive Colors	Subtractive Colors
Red, green, blue	Cyan, magenta, yellow

The additive colors, red, green, and blue, are also called the primary colors.

Cyan, magenta, and yellow, the subtractive colors, are also called the complementary or secondary colors.

Go to Additive v. Subtractive Colors.

Complementary Color Example

The colors of an afterimage are the complementary colors to the flag.

Therefore, if you stare at yellow, the afterimage will be blue.

Stare at the lower-right star on the flag for thirty seconds.

Then, look at the x in the white rectangle below the flag.

The afterimage of the flag has the normal colors of the flag.

Flag Made from Complimentary Colors

Afterimage of a Normal Flag

Tertiary Colors

Tertiary colors are the colors between the primary and complementary colors.

There are twenty-four colors on the tertiary color wheel below.

Adjacent Colors

You can make a primary color by mixing its two adjacent primary colors on the color wheel.

For example, red is made up of yellow and magenta, the two colors that are adjacent to red.

Opposite Colors Cancel Each Other

In human relationships, opposites may be attracted to each other.

In color, opposites cancel each other out.

Colors that are opposite each other on the color wheel, when added together, cancel each other.

For example, if you increase red, the color opposite to red, cyan, decreases.

Red	Cyan
Green	Magenta
Blue	Yellow

Mnemonic

Here's a mnemonic for the color relationships.

Red Corvette BY General Motors

Here's a visualization of the above mnemonic.

	BY
Red Corvette	BY	General Motors

Experiment with Mixing

The color wheel below only works with Internet Explorer.

You must have JavaScript enabled on your computer for the color wheel to operate.

Move your cursor around the color wheel below to see the colors your get when mixing the additive and subtractive colors.

The script doesn't work in Firefox.

The above script is from The JavaScript Source.

Hexadecimal Color

The figures in the small white box above are the color defined using hexadecimal color.

RGB color is used in Photoshop Elements.

Red, defined using RGB color is 255 0 0.

The first threesome of numbers define red, the next threesome define green, and the last threesome, blue.

The numbers can be from 0 to 255.

Hexadecimal color is used mostly for website design.

Red, defined using hexadecimal color is FF0000.

The numbers or letters run from 0 to 9, and then from A to F.

The first two numbers define red, the next pair define green, and the last pair, blue.

Whether you use hexadecimal color or RGB color, the colors are the same.

The notation is the only difference.

RGB Color: 255 0 0

Hexadecimal Color: FF0000

RGB Color: 0 255 0

Hexadecimal Color: 00FF00

RGB Color: 0 0 255

Hexadecimal Color: 0000FF

You can use either RGB color or hexadecimal color in the Color Picker window.

If you haven't already done so, go to RGB Color and Color Picking.