Color Theory

Color theory is made up of the color wheel, color harmony, and how the colors are used.  Below is an example of a color wheel.  There are different types of colors: primary, secondary, and tertiary.  The primary colors are red, yellow, and blue, shown by the frog, seahorse, and butterfly, because they can't be formed by combining other colors and they make up all other colors.  Secondary colors are orange, green, and violet, shown by the goldfish, chameleon, and beta fish because they are formed by mixing two primary colors.  Finally, the tertiary colors are red-orange, yellow-orange, yellow-green, blue-green, blue-violet, and red violet, shown by the monkey, snake, bug, sea turtle, fish, and dragonfly because they are formed by mixing a primary and secondary color.

Color schemes are different arrangements of colors.  There are different types, including monochromatic, analogous, complementary, color triads, and split complementary.  Below are the different types.  Pictures taken from: http://www.worqx.com/color/combinations.htm

Monochromatic color schemes are made up of shades of the same color.  Monochromatic colors are easy to work with, always look good together, look clean and nice, and allow you to emphasize certain features, so they are often used by web designers.

Analogous color schemes are made up of colors next to each other on the wheel.  They are similar to monochromatic, but are more rich.

Complementary colors are across to each other on the color wheel.  This color scheme has the most contrast and draws a lot of attention.

Color triads are made up of three colors on the color wheel that are equally spaced.  Although there is a high contrast, there also good harmony.

Split complementary colors are made up of one color and two colors equally spaced from that one color on the wheel.  This color scheme retains a strong contrast.