Color Theory · Page 2 of 6

The color wheel

The color wheel is a tool for seeing how colors relate, so you can choose colors that work together.

Three families of color

Primary colors
Red, blue and yellow.
These colors are “primary” because they cannot be made from other colors. They are the most basic colors: the parents.
Secondary colors
Green, orange and purple.
Think of secondary colors as the children of the primaries. Each is a mix of two primary colors and sits between them on the wheel.
Tertiary colors
A mix of a primary and a neighboring secondary color, found between them on the wheel. Think of them as the grandchildren of the primaries.
Examples: yellow-orange (marigold), red-orange, red-violet (magenta), blue-green (teal) and yellow-green (chartreuse).