Yes, the conclusions here are most likely intuitively correct, but the science is missing. One missing piece of the puzzle is probably the grayscale. GrayScale

Yes, the conclusions here are most likely intuitively correct, but the science is missing. One missing piece of the puzzle is probably the grayscale. GrayScale = 0.299 * R + 0.587 * G + 0.114 * B Grayscale tells you if the color is for foreground/background - it's something like the weight the color has. When I had to pick (too many) colors manually I finally automated color picking by using the following rules - and never had to worry about this subject any more. A) When combining colors it's good to have matching Gray-Values. (Otherwise one will dominate - you can also use this to make one color stand out) B) Gray value of background and foreground should differ a lot. C) Colors of similar gray value should not be picked too close to each other (obviously...)