Color Theory and Its Application in Art and Design

Book excerpt: My aim in this introductory text is to present a comprehensible discussion of certain technical topics and recent developments in color science that I believe are of real interest to artists and designers. I treat a number of applications of this knowledge, for example in selection and use of colorants (pigments and dyes) and light. Early in the book I discuss what color is and what its characteristics are. This is followed by a chapter on pertinent aspects of light, light as the stimulus that causes the perception of color. Then the subject of the colors of opaque and transparent, nonfluorescent and fluorescent materials is taken up. There are sections on color matching, color mixture, and color primaries. Chapter 6 introduces the basic ideas that underlie the universal method (CIE) of color specification. Later chapters show how these ideas have been extended to serve other purposes such as systematic color naming, de termining complementary colors, mixing colored lights, and demonstrating the limitations of color gamuts of colorants. The Munsell and the Ostwald color systems and the Natural Colour System (Sweden) are explained, and the new Uniform Color Scales (Optical Society of America) are described. Color specification itself is a broad topic. The information presented here is relevant in art and design, for those who work with pigments and dyes or with products that contain them, such as paints, printing inks, plastics, glasses, mosaic tesserae, etc.