Colour Glossary

 

Achromatic: No hue present; without chroma

Additive colour: The process of mixing the colours of light together.

Binder: A vehicle that transforms pigments into a workable tool

Broken Hue: A colour that is a combination in unequal proportions of all the primaries. Also termed broken colour.

Chroma: The saturation or brightness of a colour. Chroma can also define the purity of a hue and describe a hue or colour’s strength

Chroma Strength: The degree of difference in pure hue strength. Yellow has the greatest chroma strength.

Chromatic Black: Black that is the result of mixing red, yellow and blue together.

Chromaticity: In lights, a measure of the combination of hue and saturation in a colour.

Colour blindness: Defective colour vision that results in colour identification confusion.

Colour Harmonies/ Colour Schemes: Partitive combinations of pure hues and their variations which are harmonious.

Colour dimension: The property of a colour. There are four: hue, value, intensity, and temperature.

Colour Theory: The study of colour, that uses various types of order, observation, scientific fact, and psychology to explain colour reactions and interactions.

Colour Value: The lightness or darkness of a colour.

Colour Wheel: A circular model showing colour relationships.

Complementary hues: Hues directly across from each other on the colour wheel. Often used in colour photography in the darkroom to define an accurate colour cast.

Divisionism: The optical mixing of lines, crossed lines or dots of different colours on a ground other than white.

Dye: A pigment dissolved in a fluid.

Flat colour: A single solid area of colour used as a design element in printing; also match or spot colour.

Glazing: The layering of transparent colours.

Harmony: The visual agreement of all the parts of a work which results in the unity of the work.

Hue: The identification or name of a colour.

Incandescent light/Warm light: A type of artificial light that bathes the area in a yellowish glow.

Intensity: Saturation, or the degree of the purity of a hue.

Interference of light: The colour reaction caused by changing the viewer’s position; the blocking of some light or illumination by another object; or a weather condition.

Light wheel: A colour wheel arrangement of hues that are the result of projected coloured lights. Its primaries are red , green and blue and this wheel is the basis for additive colour.

Local colour/Objective colour: The effect of colour as seen in clear daylight.

Luminance: A measure of the value(lightness or darkness) of a mixture of lights.

Natural pigments: Pigments that are derived from animals, vegetable and mineral substances.

Optical colour: The effect of colour, as seen in lighting conditions other than white daylight, such as rain, sunrise sunset, candlelight etc.

Optical mixing: A colour phenomenon based on colour fusing that uccurs in an eye/brain interaction. A new colour is created when colours are optically fused.

Partitive colour: The process of placing colours side by side to produce different reactions.

Pigment: A colour that is in a binder, which covers a surface or adheres to a surface. Pigments provide colour.

Positive afterimage: An afterimage that is the same as the colour viewed.

Primary colour: A hue that cannot be obtained by mixing. Mixing primary colours forms other hues and colours.

Pure hue: A hue that contains no black, white, grey, or complement in its mixture.

Reflected light: Light bounced back from nearby surfaces.

Repeat/Repetition: The repeating or sequencing of design elements within a composition.

Retina: The light sensitive inner lining of the back of the eye.

RGB: Red, green and blue: the additive primaries used in colour television and other colour display systems.

Saturation: The relative purity of a hue. All pure hues are fully saturated.

Scumble : To apply a layer of opaque or semi-opaque pigment irregularly, so that some of the colour underneath remains visible.

Secondary colour: A hue resulting from the mixing of a primary hue.

Subtractive colour: The process of mixing pigments together.

Symmetrical balance: Balance that relies on a “mirror image” of design components, in which both sides of the work are equal.

Tertiary colour: A hue that results from the mixing of a primary hue and an adjacent secondary hue.

Texture: The quality of surface and its relative smoothness or roughness. Texture may be actual or implied.

Tint: The colour resulting from adding black or white to a hue.

Translucent: Denotes that light can pass through the material but the material is not entirely transparent.

Transparent: Denotes that light can pass through the material, and things within or behind the material can be seen.

Visible spectrum: The range of colours that can be perceived by the human eye. When light is projected through a prism, the array order is: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet.

Warm Greys; Greys that result from mixing white with a black that is generated by mixing red, yellow and blue together.

Warm hues: Warm hues are usually related to red and include: yellow, yellow-orange, orange , red-orange, red, red-violet. Red-orange is the warmest hue.

Wavelength: A measure of light: the distance between crests in a wave of energy.

Source: Edith Anderson Feisner, Colour, Laurence King Publishing, London, 2001