3/20/2017 SplitcomplementarycolorschemeColorpedia

Splitcomplementarycolorscheme
FromColorpedia
(RedirectedfromSplitcomplementarycolorscheme)

Splitcomplementaryisacolorschemeusingonebasecolorandtwosecondary
colors.Insteadofusingacomplementarycolor,twocolorsplacedsymetrically
arounditonthecolorwheelareused.Thebasecolorismain,whilethesecondary
colorsshouldbeusedonlyforhighlightsandaccents.Wegetacombinationof
onewarmandtwocoldcolors(orviceversa).Anyway,becausetherearetwo
secondarycolors,thebasecolorinneversostrongandclearlydominant,andthis
schemeisbettercoldwarmbalancablethanacomplementarycolorscheme.
Variousmonochromaticshadesofallcolorscouldbeaddedtothescheme.

Unlikethesharpcomplement,thisschemeisoftenmorecomfortableforthe
eyes,itssofter,andhasmorespaceforbalancingwarmandcoldcolors.Ifused
inadesign,themeaningofsecondarcolorsshouldbepreciselydefinede.g.one
foractiveelementsonly,oneforinformativeelementsandhighlightsetc.

Theimportantparameterofthisschemeisthesecondarycolorsdistance.The
closertheyare,themoresimilartothecomplementarycolorschemewillbethe
result.Thoughtheyhavetokeepsomedistancetobeclearlydistinguishable.The
biggerdistancethereis,themorevibranttheschemeis.Theextremesituationis
whenthedistanceis120,allthreecolorsaredistributedeventlyartoundthe
colorwheelandtheschemebecameaspecialvariant:thetriad. Variousshadeswithinasplit
contrastcolorscheme,and
Optionally,wemayusealsothecomplementwiththisscheme,asaSplit
theirmutualcontrast.
complementarycolorscheme(accented)variant.

Examples
Wecanusethesplitcontrastschemeforpaletteswithveryclose,alikesecondarycolors,aswellasthosewith
moredistincthues.

Example1:Softcontrastwithlowdistanceofsecondarycolors

Example2:Morevibrantpalettewithbiggersecondcolorsdistance

http://www.paletton.com/wiki/index.php?title=Splitcomplementary_color_scheme 1/2
3/20/2017 SplitcomplementarycolorschemeColorpedia

Example3:Theextreme:atriad(all3colorsevenlyaroundthecolor
wheel)

Palettonusage
WithinthePalettonapplicationthereistheTriade(3color)option(withoutacomplementarycolor),tocreate
splitcomplementaryschemes.It'sthesameoptionforbothsplitcontrastandtriadicscheme(astriadicissplit
contrastwithdistancesetto60).Setthedistancefromthebasecolorcomplementbydraggingoneofthosetwo
supplementcolor,orbyclickingtheanglegadgetandenteringthevaluemanually.Thelessthevalueis,thecloser
thecolorsaretothecontrastcolor,andaremoresimilar.Thebestvaluesaretypicallybetween1530.Higher
valuesarenttoosuitableexcepttheshiftby60,whichmakesthetriad.

Retrievedfrom"http://www.paletton.com/wiki/index.php?title=Split_complementary_color_scheme&oldid=225"

Thispagewaslastmodifiedon26April2016,at18:03.
Thispagehasbeenaccessed36,344times.

http://www.paletton.com/wiki/index.php?title=Splitcomplementary_color_scheme 2/2