About Color

The role color plays in our lives cannot be overemphasized. Color can sway thinking, change actions, and cause reactions. It can raise a person's blood pressure, soothe a person's eyes, or suppress a person's appetite.

Color is also a very practical matter, conserving energy when used appropriately, and contributing to global pollution when used inappropriately.

And of course, color can act as a powerful form of communication. Red means "stop" and green means "go." Traffic lights and thousands of other devices send such universal messages. Likewise, the colors used for a product, web site, business card, or logo cause powerful reactions.

Color from Light
The color of anything depends on the type of light sent to our eyes; light is necessary if we are to have any perception of color at all. An object is "colored," as stated above, because of the light it reflects—all other colors are absorbed into that specific object. An apple appears red, for instance, because it reflects red light.

Pigment Color
An artist's traditional color wheel has 12 colors: 3 primary, 3 secondary, and 6 tertiary. Some materials let certain colors pass through them, and absorb other colors. These materials are called dyes or pigments. The primary colors of pigment are red, blue, and yellow. Mixing these primary colors of pigment gives us the three secondary colors: red+blue=violet, red+yellow=orange, and yellow+blue=green. Then, the primary colors mixed with the secondary give us the tertiary. They are: red- violet, red-orange, yellow-orange, yellow-green, blue-green, and blue-violet.

Light Color
The primary colors of light are red, blue, and green, and the secondary are yellow, cyan, and magenta. It is very important to know that mixing pigment and mixing light are very different. Red and green paint, for example, make brown paint, but red and green light make yellow light. When beams of light are mixed without any absorption, an additive process occurs. The more we mix the beams, the closer they get to being white light. However, when we put light through a color filter, a subtractive process occurs. Some wavelengths of light are being absorbed (subtracted) and we only see the wavelengths that are selectively given off.

Lasting Impact
Besides being pretty to look at, colors and the light they come from really do have the power to impact people in many ways. Along with the aesthetics of light and color, there is real science behind each and every sight we see. Each flash or ray of light, each shade of color that light makes visible, reminds us of a special relationship—one that is often overlooked because we simply take seeing for granted. We miraculously experience a bright, vivid world because of the workings of our eyes, the wonders of light, and the brilliance of color.