Complementary colour

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Complementary colours are pairs of opposite colours. What is meant by opposite can be different between colour science, and art and the printing process.

1 Colour science
2 Afterimages
3 Art and design
4 References

[edit] Colour science

In colour science "complementary colours" are two colours that produce a shade of grey or white (or even purple in a subtractive system) when they are mixed. Primary colours and secondary colours are typically paired in this way:

red and cyan ( red cyan ) (where cyan is the mixture of green and blue)
green and magenta ( green magenta ) (where magenta is the mixture of red and blue)
blue and yellow ( blue yellow ) (where yellow is the mixture of red and green)

[edit] Afterimages

If a person stares at a single colour for about a minute then looks at a white surface, an afterimage of the complementary colour will appear. This is because of eye fatigue^[1]. The photoreceptors (cells in the eye which catch coloured light) for red light in the retina (the back part of the eye) are fatigued. When photoreceptor are fatigued they are less able to send information to the brain. When the person looks at white light information of the others colour gets through normally and the illusion of viewing the complementary colour is created.

[edit] Art and design

a Blue-Yellow-Red colour wheel. Opposite colours are called complementary.

Because of the limited range of colours that was available throughout most of the history of art, many artists still use a traditional set of complementary pairs, including:

The complement of each primary colour (red, blue, or yellow) is roughly the colour made by mixing the other two in a subtractive system (red + blue = purple; blue + yellow = green; red + yellow = orange). When two complements are mixed they produce a grey or brown.

The use of complementary colours is an important aspect of art and graphic design. This also extends to other fields such as contrasting colours in logos and retail display. When placed next to each other, complements make each other appear brighter. On an artistic colour wheel, complementary colours are placed opposite one another. Although these artistic complements may not be precise complements under the scientific definition, most artistic colour wheels are laid out roughly like the HSV colour wheel discussed above.