Color Terminology from January 19

• Spectrum – Colors as cast upon a wall by a prism, or as seen in a rainbow in the form of pure colored light.
• Hue – The name given to a color to describe its location on the color spectrum based upon its wavelength.
• Overtones – A term borrowed from music to describe the secondary hue “bias” of a primary color.  An awareness of overtones is particularly helpful when mixing color.
• Triadic Hues – Color relationships based on any three equidistant hues as shown on the color wheel.
• Primary Triad – The primary triad is so called because, theoretically, all other colors can be mixed from it.  In subtractive color the primary triad is composed of red, yellow, and blue, which are equidistant from each other on the color wheel.
• Secondary Triad – In subtractive color, orange, green, and violet.  They are called secondary because each can be made by combining two primaries.
• Earth Tone Primary Triad – A primary triad of chromatic grays (so called because of their resemblance to pigments found in nature).