Frequently Asked Questions

Questions:

• What is a triad?

• What is the relationship between the Viewing Window and the Triad windows?

• Why does the wheel go counter clockwise (R-G-B counter clockwise, and R-B-G clockwise)?

• How is the Value Scale section used?

• Do 336666 and 663333 complement each other?

• Why are there slight differences on how the colors look on my monitor?

Question:
What is a triad?
Answer:
Triads represent the basic color combinations for colors that work well together. For instance, red, green, and blue, and cyan, magenta, and yellow are the basic triads. These colors combinations are quite popular - RGB is a more "adult" color combination, and CMY is found more in design that is related to children.

Question:
What is the relationship between the Viewing Window and the Triad windows?
Answer:
The Viewing Window is not directly related to the Triads. This window shows groups of analogous colors (colors which lie side by side and look nice together), and when the Viewing Window is aligned properly to any set of four colors in that position on the wheel (all four colors are enclosed in the Viewing Window), then the Triad windows will also align with the basic triad colors (RGB, CMY). If the windows are not aligned, you can still get a good idea of colors that form a triad relationship, and will work well together in a design.

Question:
Why does the wheel go counter clockwise (R-G-B counter clockwise, and R-B-G clockwise)?
Answer:
The colors go counter clockwise, because that is the way color wheel is created. The color spectrum goes from yellow (this color is always on top, logically, because it is the lightest of all colors, blue is on the bottom, because it is the darkest), through the oranges, reds, magentas and blues, to cyan and green, then back to yellow. This is the natural progression of the spectrum.

Question:
How is the Value Scale section used?
Answer:
The Value Scale section is used to compare with underlying colors, to judge their lightness or darkness. Also, of course, these contain the codes for the web-safe gray scale values. Although it would be nice to have a gray scale that could be placed over every color on the wheel, this was not physically possible. For a more useful gray scale, the Color Wheel Company does offer a Gray Scale and Value Finder for use with all colors.

Question:
Do 336666 and 663333 complement each other?
Answer:
Yes, 336666 and 663333 do complement each other. Color is actually very mathematical and you may have noticed that even the numbers are exact inversions of each other. Any color on the color wheel that opposes any other given color, is a complement. For instance, cyan is opposite to red, and therefore a complement. If you add 60% black to both cyan and red, they are still complements, and still opposite. The same goes for adding white, or lessening the percentage of the color. 1% cyan is opposite to, and therefore a complement of 1% red.

Question:
Why are there slight differences on how the colors look on my monitor?
Answer:
Because of the way that different monitors and different web browsers render the colors on the computer monitor, there may be slight variations. On picture 1 we have shown gray block on the calibrated monitor. Pictures 2, 3 and 4 show the same gray block but with red, green, and blue values changed with monitor controls.

Picture 1 Calibrated Monitor	Picture 2 Red value is off	Picture 3 Green value is off	Picture 4 Blue value is off

Primary colors used in the printing process are not capable of displaying the range of colors that exists in light, therefore it is extremely difficult to emulate screen colors on paper.
If you would like to know more please review our brief discussion of color theory.