HTML & CSS Direct Study

Color Palettes & Schemes

Different Types of Color Schemes:

• Monochromatic -- this involves just one hue and other colors come from this. Using differing tints, shades, or tones you can create a page that looks professional and organized. This is an easy scheme to create because you are only using one color, however you must choose the correct way to display the colors or else the page can look abrupt and unpleasing to look at.
  
• Analogous uses colors that are next to each other on the color wheel. By selecting 3 colors that lay next to each other on the wheel you can create an easy scheme while also adding differing colors to the design. It is common to have the seem Chroma within all the colors, however you can make your design look more developed by carefully using tones, shades, and tints. Some colors will not do well on a site making it too dark or too light, by adjusting the shades, tints, and tones you can make a more web friendly scheme.
  
• Complementary -- By taking colors that are opposite each other on the color wheel you can add variety to a design. This scheme usually only takes on two colors, however by changing shades, tints, and tones you can create several differing appearances that create an appealing page. On a downside make sure to be careful with hues of the same chroma because they can sometimes create very abrupt designs. It is best to use a different color to separate them or add white space.
  
• Split Complementary -- this is very similar to Complementary, however you do not use the opposite hue of your base color. Instead you take the hues that are on either side of the opposite hue. This creates the Complementary colors that make a vivid design, but prevents mixing two colors that can create an abrupt scheme.
  
• Triadic -- This technique uses hues that are equally spaced around the color wheel. Furthermore, you can then use all dark shades of one color and a few tints, tones or shades of another color to put emphasis on particular colors.
• Custom -- It becomes very rare when a web designer is able to choose one particular traditional scheme from above and use it. More commonly today custom schemes are developed in order to meet all the needs of the web site. There are several websites that can help use pictures or colors to develop custom schemes. Web Sites such as Kuler help web designers with custom colors.