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Color Theory Textbook

A free, self-paced textbook in 7 chapters. Read a chapter, then drill it with the 100 companion flashcards using spaced repetition.

7 chapters · 100 cards · Updated

Chapters

  1. 1Foundations of Color: Models and the Color Wheel

    Color theory begins with the two principal models that explain how color is created: additive and subtractive mixing. The additive model, known as RGB, is the basis for screens and...

  2. 2Color Relationships: Harmonies and Schemes

    The color wheel is most often used as a map for building harmonious combinations. Complementary colors sit directly across the wheel from each other — red against green, blue again...

  3. 3The Properties and Language of Color

    To describe color precisely, designers and artists rely on a vocabulary built around three core properties. Hue is the pure spectrum color itself — the name that places it in a fam...

  4. 4How We See Color: Perception and Phenomena

    Color is not a fixed property of objects but a perception shaped by context. The phenomenon of simultaneous contrast, famously studied by French chemist Michel Eugène Chevreul in h...

  5. 5Color Psychology, Branding, and Cultural Meaning

    Colors carry emotional and behavioral associations that designers and marketers exploit strategically. Red conveys energy, passion, urgency, and danger, and it has been shown to in...

  6. 6Pioneers and the History of Color Theory

    Color theory has been shaped by a long line of scientists and artists. Sir Isaac Newton built the first color wheel in 1666 after using prisms to refract white light into its compo...

  7. 7Digital Color, Accessibility, and Practical Design

    In digital work, color is described numerically so it can be reproduced exactly. A hex color code is a six-digit hexadecimal number such as #FF5733, where the first two digits repr...

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