The color wheel arranges hues in a circle based on their wavelength relationships. Red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and violet flow around the wheel in the order they appear in a rainbow. The position of any two colors on the wheel tells you about their visual relationship.
Primary, Secondary, Tertiary
The traditional color wheel has three primaries (red, yellow, blue), three secondaries (orange, green, violet), and six tertiaries (red-orange, yellow-orange, yellow-green, blue-green, blue-violet, red-violet). In the digital RGB color model, the primaries are red, green, and blue, but the relationship principles are the same.
Relationships That Matter for Web Design
Complementary: Colors directly opposite each other (blue and orange). Maximum contrast, high energy. Analogous: Colors next to each other (blue, blue-green, green). Low contrast, natural harmony. Triadic: Three colors equally spaced (red, yellow, blue). Balanced variety. Split-complementary: One color plus the two colors adjacent to its complement. A safer version of complementary with less tension.
How PaletteRx Uses the Wheel
PaletteRx's Smart Suggestions panel uses color wheel relationships to recommend additions. When you add a blue primary, it might suggest an analogous teal, a complementary orange, or a triadic position. The suggestions are not random. They are mathematical relationships derived from the wheel.