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Ask HN: Is there a “Colors for Dummies?”

17 points by hashkb 11y ago

I've spent my life feeling stupid when it comes to colors. I'm stumped by the subtle differences (e.g. taupe, beige, tan, sand) and choosing what matches and what clashes. Is there a "Colors for Dummies" or "Learn Colors the Hard Way" meant for analytical people who don't have an intuitive grasp of color? Note: I am not colorblind. Just colordumb.

PaulHoule 11y ago
My wife is an artist and she told me about the color wheel and the common kinds of color schemes http://www.tigercolor.com/color-lab/color-theory/color-theory-intro.htm http://www.tigercolor.com/color-lab/color-theory/color-theor... the short of it is that you will get much better results with hsv than you will with rgb
- hashkb 11y ago
  This is great! Thank you! (And your wife, too.)
a_e_k 11y ago
Try playing around with Adobe Kuler [1] for a bit and explore some of themes you like on there. The color creator has some of the basic color rules like analogous, complementary, triadic, and so forth so you can experiment to get a feel for how they work. [1] https://color.adobe.com/create/color-wheel/ https://color.adobe.com/create/color-wheel/
faet 11y ago
I picked up Design for hackers[0] a few years ago. It goes over color/fonts and other design patterns. It's been pretty useful for projects I've done. It goes over when to use certain colors (ie, target uses red because you'll buy more.) and some color pallets that work well together. I got it because I didn't want to learn full color theory and whatnot, just the basics. [0] http://www.amazon.com/Design-Hackers-Reverse-Engineering-Beauty/dp/1119998956 http://www.amazon.com/Design-Hackers-Reverse-Engineering-Bea...
jason_slack 11y ago
There was an article a few days ago here that mentioned http://www.lolcolors.com/ http://www.lolcolors.com/
brudgers 11y ago
The easiest way to pick good colors is to copy good colors that someone else picked. There are many resources on color theory, and they can help a person understand why some colors work together and what someone who knows what they are doing did. Itten's Elements of Color is the only formal book on color in my library. It's useful, but there are lots of other things out there. Color wheels are kind of cool and cheap: http://www.alvinco.com/Shop/Products.aspx?GID=5993 http://www.alvinco.com/Shop/Products.aspx?GID=5993 The Munsell system is a bit pricier: http://munsell.com/color-products/color-communications-products/munsell-books-and-sheets/ http://munsell.com/color-products/color-communications-produ... Pantone is great for specifying print colors: http://www.pantone.com/graphics/process-color?from=topNav http://www.pantone.com/graphics/process-color?from=topNav On the other hand, one man's sand is another's off white. Naming colors is a whole 'nother ball game. Good luck.
JeffreyKaine 11y ago
I'm a self taught designer. I learned color through imitation. Copy someone who is good, do that enough, and you'll start to get a feel for what works. Theory only goes so far with something as subjective as "what looks good together" though theory can point you down the right path.
auganov 11y ago
Perhaps I've never been especially bad at colors. But what ultimately improved my [single] color intuition the most is internalizing HSB (Hue/Saturation/Brightness). When I think of a color I think of an HSB coordinate. Maybe it doesn't help much with composition but you have to start somewhere I guess.
kleer001 11y ago
tl;dr you want this SIGGRAPH color science vid: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3i3s5KZt2fw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3i3s5KZt2fw Forget color names. (e.g. taupe, beige, tan, sand). Color is a Science (RGB / HSV / CMYK / etc...) and those names mean nothing but arbitrary regions and are fundamentally useless except to business trying to sell their paints. Also they make me crazy, I hate them so much. If you have some time research the compositing discipline of visual effects for movies. Compositors are the people that layer together images from the lighters. Ummm... they make everything look real? Haha, I haven't had to explain compositing in laymen terms in a while. Sorry, here's a couple videos... Here's a simple breakdown and explanation about the craft of compositing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q0WpIzi8sc4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q0WpIzi8sc4 Here's the technical theory about color: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3i3s5KZt2fw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3i3s5KZt2fw I apologize, I haven't watched this video myself, but it looks like the right stuff.

17 points by hashkb 11y ago

PaulHoule 11y ago

My wife is an artist and she told me about the color wheel and the common kinds of color schemes http://www.tigercolor.com/color-lab/color-theory/color-theory-intro.htm http://www.tigercolor.com/color-lab/color-theory/color-theor... the short of it is that you will get much better results with hsv than you will with rgb

hashkb 11y ago
This is great! Thank you! (And your wife, too.)

a_e_k 11y ago

Try playing around with Adobe Kuler [1] for a bit and explore some of themes you like on there. The color creator has some of the basic color rules like analogous, complementary, triadic, and so forth so you can experiment to get a feel for how they work. [1] https://color.adobe.com/create/color-wheel/ https://color.adobe.com/create/color-wheel/

faet 11y ago

I picked up Design for hackers[0] a few years ago. It goes over color/fonts and other design patterns. It's been pretty useful for projects I've done. It goes over when to use certain colors (ie, target uses red because you'll buy more.) and some color pallets that work well together. I got it because I didn't want to learn full color theory and whatnot, just the basics. [0] http://www.amazon.com/Design-Hackers-Reverse-Engineering-Beauty/dp/1119998956 http://www.amazon.com/Design-Hackers-Reverse-Engineering-Bea...

jason_slack 11y ago

There was an article a few days ago here that mentioned http://www.lolcolors.com/ http://www.lolcolors.com/

brudgers 11y ago

The easiest way to pick good colors is to copy good colors that someone else picked. There are many resources on color theory, and they can help a person understand why some colors work together and what someone who knows what they are doing did. Itten's Elements of Color is the only formal book on color in my library. It's useful, but there are lots of other things out there. Color wheels are kind of cool and cheap: http://www.alvinco.com/Shop/Products.aspx?GID=5993 http://www.alvinco.com/Shop/Products.aspx?GID=5993 The Munsell system is a bit pricier: http://munsell.com/color-products/color-communications-products/munsell-books-and-sheets/ http://munsell.com/color-products/color-communications-produ... Pantone is great for specifying print colors: http://www.pantone.com/graphics/process-color?from=topNav http://www.pantone.com/graphics/process-color?from=topNav On the other hand, one man's sand is another's off white. Naming colors is a whole 'nother ball game. Good luck.

JeffreyKaine 11y ago

I'm a self taught designer. I learned color through imitation. Copy someone who is good, do that enough, and you'll start to get a feel for what works. Theory only goes so far with something as subjective as "what looks good together" though theory can point you down the right path.

auganov 11y ago

Perhaps I've never been especially bad at colors. But what ultimately improved my [single] color intuition the most is internalizing HSB (Hue/Saturation/Brightness). When I think of a color I think of an HSB coordinate. Maybe it doesn't help much with composition but you have to start somewhere I guess.

kleer001 11y ago

tl;dr you want this SIGGRAPH color science vid: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3i3s5KZt2fw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3i3s5KZt2fw Forget color names. (e.g. taupe, beige, tan, sand). Color is a Science (RGB / HSV / CMYK / etc...) and those names mean nothing but arbitrary regions and are fundamentally useless except to business trying to sell their paints. Also they make me crazy, I hate them so much. If you have some time research the compositing discipline of visual effects for movies. Compositors are the people that layer together images from the lighters. Ummm... they make everything look real? Haha, I haven't had to explain compositing in laymen terms in a while. Sorry, here's a couple videos... Here's a simple breakdown and explanation about the craft of compositing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q0WpIzi8sc4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q0WpIzi8sc4 Here's the technical theory about color: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3i3s5KZt2fw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3i3s5KZt2fw I apologize, I haven't watched this video myself, but it looks like the right stuff.