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Desktop Color Primer
A few rules of thumb
Try some of the following strategies for creating successful color materials:
• Rather than applying colors indiscriminately, use color to aid comprehension.
In presentations, graphs, and charts, use color to highlight patterns and emphasize
differences.
• In general, fewer colors work better than many colors.
• Use red as an accent color. Red is particularly effective when used in otherwise
monochromatic materials.
• Consider the tastes of your target audience when choosing colors.
• Keep a file of printed color pieces that appeal to you or strike you as effective.
Refer to it for ideas when designing your own documents.
Color wheel
A color wheel (color example 8) is a helpful tool for understanding the interrelation of
colors. The colors on one side of the color wheel, from magenta to yellow, appear to
most people to be warm colors, while those on the other side, from green to blue,
appear to be cool. The distance between two colors on the color wheel can help predict
how they will appear when seen side by side.
Colors opposite one another on the wheel are called complements (color example 9a),
and create a striking contrast side by side. This can be the basis for a bold graphical
design, but it is an effect you should use with discretion since it can be visually
fatiguing. Other bold combinations to consider are split complements (a color and the
two colors adjacent to its complement; color example 9b) and triads (three colors
evenly spaced on the color wheel; color example 9c). Colors adjacent to one another on
the color wheel result in subtle harmonies.
The color wheel simplifies color relationships for the purpose of clarity, showing only
saturated or pure colors. Adding the myriad variations of each hue to the palette (more
or less saturated, darker or lighter) creates a wealth of possibilities. Taking a pair of
complements from the color wheel and varying the saturation and brightness of one or
both colors produces a very different result from the pure complements. Combining a
light tint of a warm color with a darker shade of its cooler complement often gives
pleasing results. Combining a darker shade of a warm color with a light tint of its
cooler complement produces an unusual effect you may like.
