The Colour Authored by: Jean-François MESSIER

How does the

The colour wheel was discovered by Sir Isaac Newton.

The color wheel

allows you to create colour palettes that

match and are consistent.

You can create

palettes based on several types of

effects.

work?

Monochromatic

Example

You select colours in the same

segment, but nearer or farther from the

centre.

Using variations of the same colour can

create a striking palette, but it’s difficult to use

colour effectively without adding

black, white, and shades of gray for

contrast.

Analogous Selecting colours

that are touching in the wheel creates a narrow, harmonious

colour scheme.

Similar to monochromatic

colours, analogous colours provide a

predominantly warm or cool

feeling, depending on where they lie on

the wheel.

Example

Example

Colours from the opposite ends of the wheel provide the most contrast.

If you can resist the temptation to add more colours, limit yourself to just two to create a powerful (or even startling)

look.

But arrange them wisely so they don’t

clash.

Complementary

Split Complementary

Example

You can also opt for a 3-colour harmony that alternates two cold colours and

one hot one, or the other way around.

This variation of the complementary

scheme uses two colours on either side of a directly complementary

colour.

These colours have high visual contrast but with less visual tension than purely

complementary colours

Example

Triadic

Three colours equally spaced

around the colour wheel create vivid

visual interest.

Some palettes are bold while others are more refined.

You can modify this method by using a

light tint or dark shade of one of the

three colours instead of the pure

hue.

Tetradic Tetradic

Example

This scheme is popular because it offers strong visual

contrast while retaining harmony.

It uses two pairs of complementary

colours.

It’s difficult to harmonize this

scheme if all four hues are used in equal amounts.

Pick a dominant colour for your

design and use the others to support

the main one.

PowerPoint colour picker Microsoft’s PowerPoint and Apple’s Keynote

applications base their colour wheels on the one that Sir

Isaac Newton discovered.

The wheel uses three primary

colours, red, yellow and blue, spaced

evenly apart.

Blending those colours creates the full colour wheel, as

shown here.

to identify colors on the color wheel:

http://www.ficml.org/jemimap/style/color/couleur.html:

applications for generating color themes, palettes and patterns, that can inspire

any sales presentation

http://kuler.adobe.com/#themes/

http://www.colourlovers.com/

http://pictaculous.com/

http://www.degraeve.com/color-palette/

http://www.colr.org/

http://meyerweb.com/eric/tools/color-blend/

http://colrd.com/create/palette/

http://colorschemedesigner.com/.

http://www.colorschemer.com/

http://www.colorhunter.com/

http://www.color-hex.com/

http://www.aviary.com/launch/toucan

http://www.colorotate.org/

Helpful Sites and tools

Designed by Jean-François MESSIER New Technology Director at Mercuri International My blog: http://newsalespresentation.com/ Voir cette présentation en français : http://www.slideshare.net/messierjf/roue-des-couleurs Photo Credit : istockphoto.com/ – MERCURINT2010