- In this chapter, I address one of the most
fundamental concepts in the business
of computer graphics and design.
And that's color.
The entire rainbow in fact.
Red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet.
Good old Roy G. Biv.
Only in the world of computer design,
that's not really the way it works.
Colors aren't silly mnemonics,
they're wave lengths of light
to which our eyes and our minds assign subjective values.
In a digital realm, color is a finite arena
with some fixed rules.
Just as in kindergarten, you blend a color
using a handful of primaries.
But instead of mixing red, blue, and yellow,
which in case you forget never really work
the way you were promised,
you mix real professional adult primaries.
On screen, it's red, green and blue.
In print, it's cyan, magenta, yellow and black.
And in the theoretical realm, it's hue,
saturation and brightness.
In day to day life, most of us take color for granted.
But inventing color, that's another matter entirely.
So stretch your skull.
Get it nice and flexible.
Because your mind is about to expand.