What is the color wheel?
The color wheel is an organizational system in which colors are arranged in a circular format. It provides guidance on color combinations and shows which colors harmonize with one another. There are various versions of the color wheel in which colors are categorized according to physical, physiological, artistic, aesthetic and technical aspects.
The following color wheels exist:
- Color wheel according to Küppers
- Color theory according to Goethe
- Color wheel according to Itten
Primary, secondary and tertiary colors in the color wheel
Primary colors
Primary colors are yellow, red and blue. These are the basic colors, meaning they cannot be mixed from other colors. However, primary colors form the basis for mixing other colors.
Secondary colors
Secondary colors display the full vibrancy of the colors, as they contain neither white nor black. They are created by mixing primary colors together, resulting in green, violet and orange.
Tertiary colors
Tertiary colors are created by mixing a primary color with a secondary color. They are considered “broken colors” because they always contain components of all three primary colors. As a result, they have a reduced intensity. In today's digitalized world, tertiary colors play a particularly important role in the design of screens and digital media, as the reduced intensity of these colors is easier on the human eye.
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