Design Nomenclature / Color
Contrast of hue
Also called hue contrast, contrast of hue
- Color
- Composition
- 2D & 3D
Itten's simplest contrast: difference carried by hue alone, strongest between unmixed primaries. It is also the weakest tool for legibility, since hue difference without value difference vanishes for dichromats and in greyscale — two colors can be maximally opposed in hue and identical in value.
Not to be confused with
- Contrast of complementsDifference between hues that cancel to neutral when mixed. Set adjacent at full chroma they intensify one another to the point of vibration — the shared edge appears to shimmer, because neither hue can win the local adaptation and the eye keeps re-deciding. Muting one member is the usual fix.
- Contrast of light and darkDifference carried by value. It is the only contrast every viewer receives — colorblind, low-vision, in glare, in greyscale, at a distance — which is why accessibility standards are written in luminance terms and why hue difference alone has never satisfied one.