When talking about color we need to understand that every color has certain specific qualities. These qualities I will define for you now.

Hue refers to colors by the names as you know them. For example: red, green or blue. You most likely recognize the hues in the rainbow image and think of them specifically by their name.

Value is the quality of lightness and/or darkness of the color. If something is darker it has a higher number on the value scale. 1 is the lightest where 10 is the darkest. The terms Tint and Shade are used when white or black are added to a color.

Saturation is the purity or intensity of a given color. A desaturated color looks more grey, where an intensely saturated color has more color and is less grey. The example seen below goes from pure saturated cyan to cyan devoid of all its hue, with each 10% drop, you can see how the hue becomes less intense until there is no cyan hue at all.

Now that you understand the elements that make up a given color, we can now explain the way colors are seen and created. This will be demonstrated through the two color wheels: Traditional and Digital.

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