Color

The territory

27 core terms mapped for this field, ranked by how often builders reach for them. Each one is a future entry. Want to bust one? One entry, one file, one pull request.

• Color palette / color schemea deliberate set of colors chosen to work together"my brand colors" · "the set of colors for the site"
• Color scale (tonal ramp)one hue rendered as ordered lightness steps for UI theming"tonal scale" · "the 50 to 900 shades like Tailwind" · "light-to-dark versions of my brand color"
• Semantic color rolesnaming colors by job (primary, surface, danger) not by hue"the primary/secondary/destructive naming" · "colors named by what they do"
• Hex colorsix-digit code specifying an sRGB color, like #1a73e8"the hashtag color code" · "the six-character color"
• RGBadditive red-green-blue model screens use to make color"the red green blue values" · "screen color numbers"
• HSL / HSV (HSB)hue-saturation-lightness dials; intuitive but perceptually uneven"the hue saturation slider thing" · "the color picker dials"
• OKLCHperceptual color space where equal lightness numbers actually look equally bright"the color format where lighter steps look evenly spaced" · "the new CSS color thing"
• Color wheelcircular map of hues showing relationships by angular distance"the circle of colors" · "the color chart designers use"
• Color harmonyprinciples for combining hues into a coherent, intentional scheme"colors that go together" · "which colors match"
• Complementarytwo hues opposite on the wheel; maximum vibration and pop"opposite colors that pop" · "the clashing-on-purpose pair"
• Analogousneighboring hues on the wheel; calm, cohesive, low tension"colors next to each other" · "all in the same family"
• Monochromaticsingle hue varied only by lightness and chroma"all one color, different shades" · "single-color scheme"
• Tint / shade / tonehue plus white, plus black, plus gray respectively"lighter version of the same color" · "dulled-down version"
• Chroma vs saturationchroma is absolute colorfulness; saturation is colorfulness relative to lightness"how intense the color is" · "how far from gray"
• Value contrast (tonal contrast)lightness difference between elements, independent of hue"squint test" · "does it still read in black and white"
• Accent colorsmall-area high-attention hue reserved for actions and highlights"the one pop of color" · "the button color"
• 60-30-10 ruledominant, secondary, accent proportion split across a layout"how much of each color to use" · "the ratio thing"
• Neutral palettewhites, grays, blacks, and low-chroma supporting colors"just grays and beiges" · "the no-color colors"
• Tinted neutrals (chromatic grays)grays pulled slightly toward a hue instead of pure gray"grays that aren't dead gray" · "warm gray, cool gray"
• Color temperature (warm / cool)whether a palette leans toward orange-red or blue-green"cozier colors" · "colder, more clinical colors"
• Muted (desaturated) palettecolors dialed down in chroma for a quiet, expensive feel"dusty colors" · "colors with the volume turned down"
• Pastelhigh-lightness, low-chroma colors; soft and airy"baby colors" · "milky soft colors"
• Jewel tonesdeep, rich, saturated colors: emerald, sapphire, ruby, amethyst"rich luxurious colors" · "dark but vivid"
• Earth tonesmuted browns, ochres, clays, olives, sands"natural organic colors" · "terracotta desert palette"
• Neon paletteextreme-chroma colors that appear to glow against dark backgrounds"fluorescent colors" · "colors that look lit up" · "highlighter colors"
• Hue rotation (hue shift)moving colors around the wheel by degrees, keeping lightness"same palette but shifted toward orange" · "spin the colors"
• Colorwayone named color variant of an otherwise identical design"the same design in different colors" · "color option"

Deeper in the field

• sRGB standard web color space with a comparatively limited gamut
• CIELAB / CIELCh(ab) device-independent spaces underlying most perceptual color math
• Wide gamut (Display P3) color range beyond sRGB; punchier reds and greens on modern screens
• Out-of-gamut color / gamut clipping a color the display or press cannot reproduce, silently flattened
• Gamut mapping rule for pulling impossible colors back into a reproducible range
• Primary / secondary colors base hues and their mixtures within a chosen color model
• RYB vs RGB color wheel artist wheel versus light wheel; they disagree on "opposite"
• Triadic three hues evenly spaced around the wheel; balanced and playful
• Split-complementary one hue plus the two neighbors of its opposite
• Tetradic (double complementary) two complementary pairs forming a rectangle on the wheel
• Hue contrast separation created by differing hues at similar lightness
• Achromatic palette a scheme using only black, white, and grays
• Undertone subtle hue bias affecting how neutrals coordinate
• Off-white / bone / cream warm near-whites that replace harsh pure white
• Simultaneous contrast a color's appearance shifting based on what surrounds it
• Color interpolation space which space a gradient blends through; wrong one creates gray midpoints
• Linear-light blending blending in linear space so mixes and fades don't darken
• Hue-shifted shading shifting shadows toward blue and highlights toward warm instead of just darkening
• Sequential / diverging / categorical palettes the three data-viz palette types for magnitude, deviation, and category
• HDR color colors rendered brighter than paper-white using display headroom