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Color Theory

The use of color when designing your website is a very important idea. For one, it helps set the overall mood and impression of your site. You will want to use colors that go along with the idea that you are portraying to your site visitors, for example I would not use black and red extensively on a site that discussed children's toys unless the toys themselves are black and red.

But it is also easy to misuse colors when designing webpages. When colors just don't seem to "fit", the page looks awkward and can only harm the site itself. This is the primary reason why color selection and its effective use are essential to the design and appearance of your website.

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In Review

  1. What is the color wheel? - The color wheel is the most basic color lesson you learn. Filled in, it shows you what colors are mixed to make each color.
  2. Name the primary colors. - Red, Blue, and Yellow.
  3. Name the secondary colors. - Purple, Orange, and Green
  4. Name the intermediate colors. - Red-Orange, Yellow-Orange, Yellow-Green, Blue-Green, Blue-Purple, and Red-Purple
  5. What is color value? - It is a measurement of the lightness of colors.
  6. Define tint. - The lighter values of a color.
  7. Define shade. - The darker values of a color.
  8. Describe three color schemes. - 1) Monochromatic, meaning the use of one color, 2) Analogous, meaning 3-5 adjacent colors on the color wheel, and 3) Complementary, meaning the use of colors on opposite sides of the color wheel.
  9. Define monochromatic. - The use of a single color in a color scheme
  10. Give an example of complementary colors. - Orange and Blue - Generally one against the other is quite difficult to read.
  11. Give an example of analogous colors. Describe the problem usually encountered with analogous colors. - Blue, Green, Yellow. The biggest problem with using analogous colors is contrast - the colors tend to blend together making text harder to read.
  12. Give an example of warm colors. - Red, Orange, Yellow
  13. Give an example of cool colors. - Blue, Green, Purple
  14. What is color psychology? Give examples of meanings attached to threee colors in American culture. - Color Psychology is the meanings people "get" when they look at a color. For example, when people see red or orange, they tend to get hungry. Pink is associated with girls, and Blue with boys.