Color (Art 14) Glossary
Achromatic:
Having no discernible hue.
Additive mixture:
Color seen as the result of light only. Differs from that of pigment (see subtractive mixture).
Additive primaries:
Red, Blue, Green. Wavelengths of light that must be present to yield white light. Also the
wavelengths of light that must be present to render all colors of objects.
Adjacent colors:
Hues that are one step from each other on the color wheel. (See analogous colors)
Advancing colors:
Colors that appear to be relatively nearer or closer to the observer. In general. Warmer, higher
chroma and lighter value colors tend to advance (see receding colors).
Afterimage:
A complementary color image generated by the eye in response to over stimulation (or fatigue)
of part of the retina by a single color.
Analogous colors:
Hues adjacent (or nearly adjacent) on the color wheel; sometimes defined as hues limited to the
range between a primary and secondary color.
Artist’s spectrum:
The full range of visible hues: Red. Orange. Yellow. Green, Blue, and Violet; expandable to
include any and all hues in between them. A synonym for color wheel.
Balance:
An involuntary physiological state of rest that occurs within a field of vision when all three
(additive or subtractive) primaries are present (see harmony.)
Brilliance:
The combined qualities of high light reflectance and strong hue, typically found in saturated
colors and strong tints (see chroma).
Chroma:
Term used to describe the relative purity or strength of a hue. Synonymous with the terms
intensity and saturation. One of the three principal attributes used to describe a given color. High
chroma is strong and pure color; low chroma is muted or diluted color.
Chromatic:
Possessing hue or color.
Color:
A perceptual sensation created in the mind in response to certain wavelengths of electromagnetic
energy that comprise the visible spectrum of light. Human perception of and response to those
wavelengths is conditioned by many factors including physiology, psychology, culture and
language.
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Color Blindness:
The partial or total inability to distinguish certain colors. There are different forms of color
blindness. Most frequently individuals can distinguish blue but confuse red and green.
Color Contrasts:
The seven visual effects described by Johannes Itten: Hue, Value, Chroma, Warm-Cool,
Complementary, Simultaneous and Extension. Described at length in The Art of Color.
Color Temperature:
A measurement taken in Kelvin degrees of colored light.
Color Wheel:
A circular two-dimensional model showing color relationships, originating from Isaac Newton’s
“bending” of the linear array of the spectral hues into a circle.
Colorant:
A substance that reacts with light by absorbing some wavelengths and reflecting others, giving an
object or surface its hue. Also called color agent. Dye colorants are transparent; Pigments are
generally opaque.
Complements, Complementary Colors:
Colors directly opposite each other on the color wheel. Combined additively they complete each
other; placed adjacently, they heighten or intensify each other. In context, they require one
another for balance.
Dye (dyestuff):
A colorant that is fully dissolved in a vehicle such as water or other liquid; a colorant in solution.
Equilibrium:
(See balance)
Extension:
Term used by Johannes Itten to describe the contrast effect brought about in a given composition
by altering the quantity or amount of one hue in relation to another,
Fugitive:
Easily fading or deteriorating color, usually used in relation to colorants.
Ground: The area surrounding the”figure” in a composition. The context or backdrop against
which a color is seen.
Harmony:
For many individuals, a subjective or arbitrary state defined as a pleasing joint effect of two or
more colors. For Itten, a specific condition created in a colored image by the balancing of
complements (see balance). Itten uses the term “color chord” to describe a number of color
combinations described on the color wheel by the superimposition of regular geometric figures as
follows:
Dyad: paired complements, connected by a straight line through the center of the Color
Wheel (or split-complements joined by an isosceles triangle)
Triad: three colors on the wheel joined by an equilateral triangle
Tetrad: two pains of complements joined by a square or rectangle.
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Hue:
The most basic color attribute, e.g. its redness, blueness, etc. The name of a color.
Intensity:
Synonymous with the term ‘Chroma” (see Chroma).
Light:
Visible electromagnetic energy with various frequencies corresponding to the hues of the visible
spectrum.
Medium:
1. A liquid, paste, viscous, solid, or other vehicle (substance) into which pigments or dyes have
been introduced to form a transferable colorant such as paint, dye or crayon. 2. The material(s)
and/or technology(ies) with which an (art or other) object is made.
Metamerism:
The phenomenon that occurs when two colors which appear to match under one set of light
conditions do not match under another set of light conditions.
Monochromatic: Containing only one hue.
Optical Color Mixing:
Color perception that results from the combination of adjacent color areas by the eye/brain.
Pointillism is an example. Also called Retinal Mixing or Partitive Color.
Palette:
A group of colors used by an artist or designer or in a specific design, work of art or body of
work.
Primary Colors:
Those hues from which all the others can be produced. In additive missing (light): Red, Green,
Blue; In subtractive mixing (pigments, etc): Blue, Yellow, Red.
Process Colors:
In printing and other graphic arts media, yellow (Y), cyan (C), (blue-green)
Magenta (M) (red-violet), colorants that when mixed or laid over one another result in nearly all
possible colors on the printed page. Used with the addition of Black (K) in four-color printing.
Reflected beam:
The beam of light reaching an object that is reflected back to the eye. Diffused (matte) and
specular(gloss) are two primary types of reflection.
Saturation:
Synonymous with “Chroma” (see Chroma.)
Secondary Colors:
Colors formed by combining two primary colors. In subtractive mixtures: orange (red and
yellow), green (blue and yellow). And violet (red and blue); In additive mixtures: cyan (blue and
green), yellow (red and green, and magenta (red and blue).
Shade:
A pure color mixed with black
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Simultaneous Contrast:
The optical effect in which colors are influenced or altered in apparent hue, and/or value, and/or
chroma by adjacent colors, each imparting to its neighbor something of its own complementary
hue and/or opposite value and/or chroma.
Spectrum (light):
The full range of visible hues. Observable by splitting white light with a prism into its component
parts. The rainbow is a natural spectral manifestation.
Subtractive Mixture:
Colors seen as the result of the absorption of light. E.g. as in pigmentary mixtures (see additive
mixture).
Subtractive Primaries:
Fundamental colors used by painters (and printers) to form all other colors: Red, Blue, and
Yellow. Cyan (C), Magenta (M), Yellow (Y), and Black (K) are technically exact subtractive
primaries used in color printing and other applications.
Tertiary Colors:
Colors formed by 1. combination of two secondaries (Goethe), or 2. Combination of a primary
with an adjacent secondary (Itten), such as Yellow-Orange, Red-Violet, Blue-Green, etc.
Tint:
A pure color plus white.
Tone:
A pure color plus gray.
Transparence Illusion:
An illusion in which opaque colors are made to appear transparent by overlapping two different
colors and placing the middle mix of the two in the area of the overlap (Albers).
Value:
Relative lightness or darkness with or without the presence of hue. High value is light; Low
value is dark.
Vanishing Boundaries:
Term that Josef Albers applied to the phenomenon observed when two different solid color areas
of exactly the same value are placed adjacent to each other. The hard edge separating the two
seems to soften or disappear.
Vibrating Boundaries:
Term that Josef Albers applied to the phenomenon observed when two different solid color areas,
usually near complements of near equal value, are placed adjacent to each other creating a very
noticeable optical fluttering effect. Clashing colors.
Warm-Cool:
One of J. Itten’s seven color contrasts. The relative quality of a given hue as it is located nearer
to or further from the extreme color temperature polarities on the color wheel of Red-Orange
(warmest) to Blue-Green (coolest). Visible hues possess this quality at all levels of chroma and
value.
Revised 10.10.03. ga
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