USE OF COLOR- Color Schemes
Color Schemes – Print & Web

Choosing a color scheme or palette for a project is a great way to make something feel cohesive. Whether it be a Website, a pamphlet or a classroom, by repeating colors you are setting a tone and expectations for your creation. Below are several standard color schemes to help you choose your palette.

Monochromatic- A single hue is used, often with variations in its value and saturation. The monochromatic scheme can be broken up using neutral colors (black, white, grays, browns) and variations of the chromatic hue.

Analogous- This scheme uses several hues lying next to each other on the color wheel. This scheme is somewhat arbitrary because color wheels could have as few as 6 colors or hundreds. In the case of the color wheel used in this tutorial, the analogous color scheme could be orange/red, red, and purple/red, or blue, blue/green, and green, for example.

Complimentary- This color scheme is made up of colors that are opposite of each other on the color wheel, yellow and purple for example, and has a high degree of contrast. Used together, complimentary colors provide an equilibrium for each other and both intensify the other's appearance. To lesson the visual contrast between complimentary colors, decrease their levels of saturation.

Double Complimentary- This color scheme uses two hues adjacent to each other on the color wheel, e.g. green and blue/green, with their respective compliments, e.g. orange/red and red.

Split Complimentary- The two hues to either side of the compliments are used, e.g. blue with yellow/orange and red/orange. This softens the contrast of the compliments slightly.

Triadic- This scheme uses three colors of equidistance on the color wheel, e.g. red, blue and yellow.