Colors for perfect html design

The right colors can captivate our attention, elicit a variety of emotions, increase
conversion rates, increase memory, improve readership, and increase brand recognition. In fact, A study by the University of Loyola, Maryland found that color increases brand recognition by up to 80 percent.

Lots of research has gone into the art and combination of colors. Here are the basics.

The color wheel is the foundation for combining colors. It was first invented by Isaac Newton in 1666 to show the relations of colors.

The color wheel is composed of three different types of colors: primary, secondary, and tertiary.

Primary colors include Red, Yellow, and Blue. All other colors are derived by combinations of these colors.

Secondary colors include Orange, Green, and Purple.

Tertiary colors are created by mixing primary and secondary colors. They include
red-orange, red-violet, yellow-orange, yellow-green, blue-violet and blue-green.

Today’s most common version of the color wheel contains all 12 of the preceding colors.

As a designer, color is one of the most important elements of anything you create. It doesn’t matter whether you’re designing a logo or an entire website.

Using the color wheel, you can arrange color schemes that complement your design.

Color schemes come in many forms. We will be covering some of the most common ones, including Analogous, Complimentary, Triad, and Monochromatic.

Analogous colors are those that are adjacent to each other on the color wheel. You can pick any range of colors between two points of either triangle on the color wheel (ie yellow to red, red to orange, orange to violet, red to blue, etc) and you will have an analogous color scheme.

Using an analogous color scheme can help you to create vibrant designs that are pleasing to the eye.

These combinations make each color look more vibrant. In fact, when placed next to each other, a phenomenon known as simultaneous contrast occurs.

Some websites that use Complementary color schemes include:

http://www.ufl.edu/ (University of Florida)
http://www.federatedmedia.net/ (Red and green are complementary colors.)

Triad colors are those that are three hues equidistant on the color wheel. They are evenly spaced around the color wheel to form a triangle. This combination will give you a design that is colorful but balanced at the same time.

A monochromatic color scheme is almost always visually appealing, but lacks color contrast. While using a purely monontone chromatic color scheme can get a bit boring, using it with white or black, white, or gray can create a very attractive design.

You can see an example of this color scheme at Neatorama.com, which sports a
variety of shades of gray. Another good example can be found at ColourLovers.

Fortuanately, in today’s high technology world, you don’t have to create color schemes all by yourself. There are a number of excellent online resources available to help you pick the perfect color scheme for your next design.

http://kuler.adobe.com/ - This color scheme tool will allow you to quickly create analogous, complementary, monochromatic, and triad color schemes.

Color Schemer Online is an application that will quickly and easily create perfectly matching color schemes. All you do is select a color to start with, and it will immediately output an attractive color scheme.

It also allows you to lighten or darken the scheme simply by pressing a button….one of my favorite features

ColorBlender is an online tool that will help you to create matching colors and palette designs. Once you’ve have created a color scheme that you like, you can then save it to your computer.

To check out a large gallery of color schemes, go to http://www.colourlovers.com/.