
Complementary colors are pairs of
color
Color (American English) or colour (British English) is the visual perceptual property deriving from the spectrum of light interacting with the photoreceptor cells of the eyes. Color categories and physical specifications of color are assoc ...
s which, when combined or
mixed, cancel each other out (lose
hue) by producing a
grayscale color like
white
White is the lightness, lightest color and is achromatic (having no hue). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully diffuse reflection, reflect and scattering, scatter all the ...
or
black
Black is a color which results from the absence or complete absorption of visible light. It is an achromatic color, without hue, like white and grey. It is often used symbolically or figuratively to represent darkness. Black and white ha ...
. When placed next to each other, they create the strongest
contrast for those two colors. Complementary colors may also be called "opposite colors".
Which pairs of colors are considered complementary depends on the color theory one uses:
*Modern color theory uses either the
RGB additive color
Additive color or additive mixing is a property of a color model that predicts the appearance of colors made by coincident component lights, i.e. the perceived color can be predicted by summing the numeric representations of the component colo ...
model or the
CMY subtractive color
Subtractive color or subtractive color mixing predicts the spectral power distribution of light after it passes through successive layers of partially absorbing media. This idealized model is the essential principle of how dyes and inks are u ...
model, and in these, the complementary pairs are
red–
cyan
Cyan () is the color between green and blue on the visible spectrum of light. It is evoked by light with a predominant wavelength between 490 and 520 nm, between the wavelengths of green and blue.
In the subtractive color system, or CMYK col ...
,
green
Green is the color between cyan and yellow on the visible spectrum. It is evoked by light which has a dominant wavelength of roughly 495570 Nanometre, nm. In subtractive color systems, used in painting and color printing, it is created by ...
–
magenta
Magenta () is a color that is variously defined as pinkish- purplish- red, reddish-purplish-pink or mauvish- crimson. On color wheels of the RGB (additive) and CMY (subtractive) color models, it is located exactly midway between red and bl ...
, and
blue
Blue is one of the three primary colours in the RYB colour model (traditional colour theory), as well as in the RGB (additive) colour model. It lies between violet and cyan on the spectrum of visible light. The eye perceives blue when ...
–
yellow
Yellow is the color between green and orange on the spectrum of light. It is evoked by light with a dominant wavelength of roughly 575585 nm. It is a primary color in subtractive color systems, used in painting or color printing. In ...
.
*In the traditional
RYB color model, the complementary color pairs are
red–
green
Green is the color between cyan and yellow on the visible spectrum. It is evoked by light which has a dominant wavelength of roughly 495570 Nanometre, nm. In subtractive color systems, used in painting and color printing, it is created by ...
,
yellow
Yellow is the color between green and orange on the spectrum of light. It is evoked by light with a dominant wavelength of roughly 575585 nm. It is a primary color in subtractive color systems, used in painting or color printing. In ...
–
purple, and
blue
Blue is one of the three primary colours in the RYB colour model (traditional colour theory), as well as in the RGB (additive) colour model. It lies between violet and cyan on the spectrum of visible light. The eye perceives blue when ...
–
orange.
*
Opponent process theory suggests that the most contrasting color pairs are red–green and blue–yellow.
*The
black
Black is a color which results from the absence or complete absorption of visible light. It is an achromatic color, without hue, like white and grey. It is often used symbolically or figuratively to represent darkness. Black and white ha ...
-
white
White is the lightness, lightest color and is achromatic (having no hue). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully diffuse reflection, reflect and scattering, scatter all the ...
color pair is common to all the above theories.
In different color models
Traditional color model
The traditional
color wheel
A color wheel or color circle is an abstract illustrative organization of color hues around a circle, which shows the relationships between primary colors, secondary colors, tertiary colors etc.
Some sources use the terms ''color wheel'' & ' ...
model dates to the 18th century and is still used by many
artist
An artist is a person engaged in an activity related to creating art, practicing the arts, or demonstrating an art. The common usage in both everyday speech and academic discourse refers to a practitioner in the visual arts only. However, t ...
s today. This model designates red, yellow and blue as primary colors with the primary–secondary complementary pairs of red–green, blue-orange, and yellow–purple.
In this traditional scheme, a complementary color pair contains one primary color (yellow, blue or red) and a secondary color (green, purple or orange). The complement of any primary color can be made by combining the two other primary colors. For example, to achieve the complement of yellow (a primary color) one could combine red and blue. The result would be purple, which appears directly across from yellow on the color wheel. Continuing with the color wheel model, one could then combine yellow and purple, which essentially means that all three primary colors would be present at once. Since paints work by absorbing light, having all three primaries together produces a black or gray color (see
subtractive color
Subtractive color or subtractive color mixing predicts the spectral power distribution of light after it passes through successive layers of partially absorbing media. This idealized model is the essential principle of how dyes and inks are u ...
). In more recent painting manuals, the more precise subtractive primary colors are magenta, cyan and yellow.
Complementary colors can create some striking optical effects. The shadow of an object appears to contain some of the complementary color of the object. For example, the shadow of a red apple will appear to contain a little blue-green. This effect is often copied by painters who want to create more luminous and realistic shadows. Also, if you stare at a square of color for a long period of time (thirty seconds to a minute), and then look at a white paper or wall, you will briefly see an
afterimage of the square in its complementary color.
Placed side-by-side as tiny dots, in partitive color mixing, complementary colors appear gray.
Colors produced by light
The
RGB color model, invented in the 19th century and fully developed in the 20th century, uses combinations of red, green, and blue light against a black background to make the colors seen on a
computer monitor
A computer monitor is an output device that displays information in pictorial or textual form. A discrete monitor comprises a visual display, support electronics, power supply, housing, electrical connectors, and external user controls.
The ...
or television screen. In the RGB model, the primary colors are red, green, and blue. The complementary primary–secondary combinations are
red–
cyan
Cyan () is the color between green and blue on the visible spectrum of light. It is evoked by light with a predominant wavelength between 490 and 520 nm, between the wavelengths of green and blue.
In the subtractive color system, or CMYK col ...
,
green
Green is the color between cyan and yellow on the visible spectrum. It is evoked by light which has a dominant wavelength of roughly 495570 Nanometre, nm. In subtractive color systems, used in painting and color printing, it is created by ...
–
magenta
Magenta () is a color that is variously defined as pinkish- purplish- red, reddish-purplish-pink or mauvish- crimson. On color wheels of the RGB (additive) and CMY (subtractive) color models, it is located exactly midway between red and bl ...
, and
blue
Blue is one of the three primary colours in the RYB colour model (traditional colour theory), as well as in the RGB (additive) colour model. It lies between violet and cyan on the spectrum of visible light. The eye perceives blue when ...
–
yellow
Yellow is the color between green and orange on the spectrum of light. It is evoked by light with a dominant wavelength of roughly 575585 nm. It is a primary color in subtractive color systems, used in painting or color printing. In ...
. In the RGB color model, the light of two complementary colors, such as red and cyan, combined at full intensity, will make white light, since two complementary colors contain light with the full range of the spectrum. If the light is not fully intense, the resulting light will be gray.
In some other color models, such as the
HSV color space, the neutral colors (white, grays, and black) lie along a central axis. Complementary colors (as defined in HSV) lie opposite each other on any horizontal cross-section. For example, in the
CIE 1931 color space
The CIE 1931 color spaces are the first defined quantitative links between distributions of wavelengths in the electromagnetic visible spectrum, and physiologically perceived colors in human color vision. The mathematical relationships that def ...
a color of a "
dominant" wavelength can be mixed with an amount of the
complementary wavelength to produce a neutral color (gray or white).
File:Color star-en (tertiary names).svg, A traditional color star developed in 1867 by Charles Blanc. The traditional complementary colors used by 19th-century artists such as Van Gogh, Monet and Renoir are directly opposite each other.
File:RBG color wheel.svg, The colors of the RGB color model, which uses combinations of red, green, and blue light on a black screen to create all the colors seen on a computer display or television. Complementary colors are opposite each other.
File:HSV cylinder.png, The HSV color wheel has the same complementary colors as the RGB color model, but shows them in three dimensions.
File:Colour Combinations Chart.png, A chart of color combinations.
Color printing

Color printing, like painting, also uses subtractive colors, but the complementary colors are different from those used in painting. As a result, the same logic applies as to colors produced by light. Color printing uses the
CMYK color model
The CMYK color model (also known as process color, or four color) is a subtractive color model, based on the CMY color model, used in color printing, and is also used to describe the printing process itself. The abbreviation ''CMYK'' refer ...
, making colors by overprinting cyan, magenta, yellow, and black ink. In printing the most common complementary colors are magenta–green, yellow–blue, and cyan–red. In terms of complementary/opposite colors, this model gives exactly the same result as using the RGB model. Black is added when needed to make the colors darker.
In theory and art
In color theory
The effect that colors have upon each other had been noted since antiquity. In his essay ''
On Colors'',
Aristotle
Aristotle (; grc-gre, Ἀριστοτέλης ''Aristotélēs'', ; 384–322 BC) was a Greek philosopher and polymath during the Classical Greece, Classical period in Ancient Greece. Taught by Plato, he was the founder of the Peripatet ...
observed that "when light falls upon another color, then, as a result of this new combination, it takes on another nuance of color". Saint
Thomas Aquinas
Thomas Aquinas, OP (; it, Tommaso d'Aquino, lit=Thomas of Aquino; 1225 – 7 March 1274) was an Italian Dominican friar and priest who was an influential philosopher, theologian and jurist in the tradition of scholasticism; he is known wi ...
had written that purple looked different next to white than it did next to black, and that gold looked more striking against blue than it did against white; the Italian Renaissance architect and writer
Leon Battista Alberti observed that there was harmony (''coniugatio'' in Latin, and ''amicizia'' in Italian) between certain colors, such as red–green and red–blue; and
Leonardo da Vinci
Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci (15 April 14522 May 1519) was an Italian polymath of the High Renaissance who was active as a painter, Drawing, draughtsman, engineer, scientist, theorist, sculptor, and architect. While his fame initially re ...
observed that the finest harmonies were those between colors exactly opposed (''retto contrario''), but no one had a convincing scientific explanation why that was so until the 18th century.
In 1704, in his treatise on optics,
Isaac Newton
Sir Isaac Newton (25 December 1642 – 20 March 1726/27) was an English mathematician, physicist, astronomer, alchemist, theologian, and author (described in his time as a " natural philosopher"), widely recognised as one of the g ...
devised a circle showing a
spectrum
A spectrum (plural ''spectra'' or ''spectrums'') is a condition that is not limited to a specific set of values but can vary, without gaps, across a continuum. The word was first used scientifically in optics to describe the rainbow of color ...
of seven colors. In this work and in an earlier work in 1672, he observed that certain colors around the circle were opposed to each other and provided the greatest contrast; he named red and blue, yellow and violet, and green and "a purple close to scarlet".
In the following decades, scientists refined Newton's color circle, eventually giving it twelve colors: the three primary colors (yellow, blue, and red); three secondary colors (green, purple and orange), made by combining primary colors; and six additional tertiary colors, made by combining the primary and secondary colors.
In two reports read before the Royal Society (London) in 1794, the American-born British scientist
Benjamin Thompson, Count Rumford (1753–1814), coined the term ''complement'' to describe two colors that, when mixed, produce white. While conducting photometric experiments on factory lighting in Munich, Thompson noticed that an "imaginary" blue color was produced in the shadow of yellow candlelight illuminated by skylight, an effect that he reproduced in other colors by means of tinted glasses and pigmented surfaces. He theorized that "To every color, without exception, whatever may be its hue or shade, or however it may be compounded, there is another in perfect harmony to it, which is its complement, and may be said to be its companion." He also suggested some possible practical uses of this discovery. "By experiments of this kind, which might easily be made, ladies may choose ribbons for their gowns, or those who furnish rooms may arrange their colors upon principles of the most perfect harmony and of the purest taste. The advantages that painters might derive from a knowledge of these principles of the harmony of colors are too obvious to require illustration."
In the early 19th century, scientists and philosophers across Europe began studying the nature and interaction of colors. The German poet
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (28 August 1749 – 22 March 1832) was a German poet, playwright, novelist, scientist, statesman, theatre director, and critic. His works include plays, poetry, literature, and aesthetic criticism, as well as tr ...
presented his own theory in 1810, stating that the two primary colors were those in the greatest opposition to each other, yellow and blue, representing light and darkness. He wrote that "Yellow is a light which has been dampened by darkness; blue is a darkness weakened by light." Out of the opposition of blue and yellow, through a process called "steigerung", or "augmentation" a third color, red, was born. Goethe also proposed several sets of complementary colors which "demanded" each other. According to Goethe, "yellow 'demands' violet; orange
emandsblue;
purple emandsgreen; and vice versa". Goethe's ideas were highly personal and often disagreed with other scientific research, but they were highly popular and influenced some important artists, including
J.M.W. Turner.
At about the same time that Goethe was publishing his theory, a British physicist, doctor and Egyptologist,
Thomas Young (1773–1829), showed by experiments that it was not necessary to use all the colors of spectrum to create white light; it could be done by combining the light of just three colors; red, green, and blue. This discovery was the foundation of
additive color
Additive color or additive mixing is a property of a color model that predicts the appearance of colors made by coincident component lights, i.e. the perceived color can be predicted by summing the numeric representations of the component colo ...
s, and of the
RGB color model. He showed that it was possible to create magenta by combining red and blue light; to create yellow by mixing red and green light; and to create cyan, or blue-green, by mixing green and blue. He also found that it was possible to create virtually any other color by modifying the intensity of these colors. This discovery led to the system used today to create colors on a computer or television display. Young was also the first to propose that the
retina
The retina (from la, rete "net") is the innermost, light-sensitive layer of tissue of the eye of most vertebrates and some molluscs. The optics of the eye create a focused two-dimensional image of the visual world on the retina, which then ...
of the eye contained nerve fibers which were sensitive to three different colors. This foreshadowed the modern understanding of
color vision
Color vision, a feature of visual perception, is an ability to perceive differences between light composed of different wavelengths (i.e., different spectral power distributions) independently of light intensity. Color perception is a part of ...
, in particular the finding that the eye does indeed have three color receptors which are sensitive to different wavelength ranges.
At about the same time as Young discovered additive colors, another British scientist,
David Brewster (1781–1868), the inventor of the
kaleidoscope, proposed a competing theory that the true primary colors were red, yellow, and blue, and that the true complementary pairs were red–green, blue–orange, and yellow–purple. Then a German scientist,
Hermann von Helmholtz
Hermann Ludwig Ferdinand von Helmholtz (31 August 1821 – 8 September 1894) was a German physicist and physician who made significant contributions in several scientific fields, particularly hydrodynamic stability. The Helmholtz Associatio ...
, (1821–1894), resolved the debate by showing that colors formed by light, additive colors, and those formed by pigments, subtractive colors, did in fact operate by different rules, and had different primary and complementary colors.
Other scientists looked more closely at the use of complementary colors. In 1828, the French chemist
Eugene Chevreul
Eugene may refer to:
People and fictional characters
* Eugene (given name), including a list of people and fictional characters with the given name
* Eugene (actress) (born 1981), Kim Yoo-jin, South Korean actress and former member of the sin ...
, making a study of the manufacture of
Gobelin tapestries to make the colors brighter, demonstrated scientifically that "the arrangement of complementary colors is superior to any other harmony of contrasts". His 1839 book on the subject, ''De la loi du contraste simultané des couleurs et de l'assortiment des objets colorés'', showing how complementary colors can be used in everything from textiles to gardens, was widely read in Germany, France and England, and made complementary colors a popular concept. The use of complementary colors was further publicized by the French art critic
Charles Blanc in his book ''Grammaire des arts et du dessin'' (1867) and later by the American color theorist
Ogden Rood in his book ''Modern Chromatics'' (1879). These books were read with great enthusiasm by contemporary painters, particularly
Georges Seurat and
Vincent van Gogh, who put the theories into practice in their paintings.
In 2022 a team from Stanford University found that three dimensional perceptual color space is not
Riemannian, as has been widely accepted since being proposed by Reimann and furthered by Helmholtz and
Schroedinger. They conducted comparative tests with human subjects using 'two-alternative forced choice' tasks for greater accuracy. They found large color differences were perceived as less distant than the sum of all distances within them. When these perceived distances are plotted it results in a
non-Euclidian color space. This finding most strongly impacts
analogous color pairings, as the distance between colors grows larger as you zoom in on an area of color space. They conclude there would need to be changes to the color standard used by the
International Commission of Weights and Measures, to account for diminishing perceptual returns on color spacings.
File:Newton's color circle.png, Newton's color circle (1704) displayed seven colors. He declared that colors opposite each other had the strongest contrast and harmony.
File:Boutet 1708 color circles.jpg, A Boutet color circle from 1708 showed the traditional complementary colors; red and green, yellow and purple, and blue and orange.
File:GoetheFarbkreis.jpg, The color wheel designed by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (28 August 1749 – 22 March 1832) was a German poet, playwright, novelist, scientist, statesman, theatre director, and critic. His works include plays, poetry, literature, and aesthetic criticism, as well as tr ...
(1810) was based on the idea that the primary colors yellow and blue, representing light and darkness, were in opposition to each other.
In art
In 1872,
Claude Monet
Oscar-Claude Monet (, , ; 14 November 1840 – 5 December 1926) was a French painter and founder of impressionist painting who is seen as a key precursor to modernism, especially in his attempts to paint nature as he perceived it. During ...
painted ''
Impression, Sunrise'', a tiny orange sun and some orange light reflected on the clouds and water in the center of a hazy blue landscape. This painting, with its striking use of the complementary colors orange and blue, gave its name to the
impressionist movement. Monet was familiar with the science of complementary colors, and used them with enthusiasm. He wrote in 1888, "color makes its impact from contrasts rather than from its inherent qualities....the primary colors seem more brilliant when they are in contrast with their complementary colors".
Orange and blue became an important combination for all the impressionist painters. They all had studied the recent books on color theory, and they knew that orange placed next to blue made both colors much brighter.
Auguste Renoir painted boats with stripes of chrome orange paint straight from the tube.
Paul Cézanne used orange made of touches of yellow, red and ochre against a blue background.
Vincent van Gogh was especially known for using this technique; he created his own oranges with mixtures of yellow, ochre and red, and placed them next to slashes of sienna red and bottle-green, and below a sky of turbulent blue and violet. He also put an orange moon and stars in a cobalt blue sky. He wrote to his brother Theo of "searching for oppositions of blue with orange, of red with green, of yellow with purple, searching for broken colors and neutral colors to harmonize the brutality of extremes, trying to make the colors intense, and not a harmony of greys".
Describing his painting, ''
The Night Café'', to his brother Theo in 1888, Van Gogh wrote: "I sought to express with red and green the terrible human passions. The hall is blood-red and pale yellow, with a green billiard table in the center, and four lamps of lemon yellow, with rays of orange and green. Everywhere it is a battle and antithesis of the most different reds and greens."
[Vincent van Gogh, ''Corréspondénce general'', number 533, cited by John Gage, ''Practice and Meaning from Antiquity to Abstraction''.]
File:Claude Monet, Impression, soleil levant.jpg, '' Impression, Sunrise'' by Claude Monet
Oscar-Claude Monet (, , ; 14 November 1840 – 5 December 1926) was a French painter and founder of impressionist painting who is seen as a key precursor to modernism, especially in his attempts to paint nature as he perceived it. During ...
(1872) featured a tiny but vivid orange sun against a blue background. The painting gave its name to the Impressionist movement.
File:Renoir12.jpg, ''Oarsmen at Chatou
Rowing is the act of propelling a human-powered watercraft using the sweeping motions of oars to displace water and generate reactional propulsion. Rowing is functionally similar to paddling, but rowing requires oars to be mechanically atta ...
'' by Pierre-Auguste Renoir
Pierre-Auguste Renoir (; 25 February 1841 – 3 December 1919) was a French artist who was a leading painter in the development of the Impressionist style. As a celebrator of beauty and especially feminine sensuality, it has been said that " ...
(1879). Renoir knew that orange and blue brightened each other when put side by side.
File:SelbstPortrait VG2.jpg, In this self-portrait (1889), Vincent van Gogh made the most of the contrast between the orange of his hair and the blue background.
File:VanGogh-starry night ballance1.jpg, '' Starry Night'' by Vincent van Gogh (1889) features orange stars and an orange moon.
File:Vincent Willem van Gogh 076.jpg, ''The Night Café'' by Vincent van Gogh (1888) used red and green to express what van Gogh called "the terrible human passions".
Afterimages
When one stares at a single color (red for example) for a sustained period of time (roughly thirty seconds to a minute), then looks at a white surface, an
afterimage of the complementary color (in this case cyan) will appear. This is one of several
aftereffects studied in the
psychology
Psychology is the scientific study of mind and behavior. Psychology includes the study of conscious and unconscious phenomena, including feelings and thoughts. It is an academic discipline of immense scope, crossing the boundaries betwe ...
of
visual perception
Visual perception is the ability to interpret the surrounding environment through photopic vision (daytime vision), color vision, scotopic vision (night vision), and mesopic vision (twilight vision), using light in the visible spectrum refl ...
which are generally ascribed to fatigue in specific parts of the visual system.
In the case above the
photoreceptors for red light in the
retina
The retina (from la, rete "net") is the innermost, light-sensitive layer of tissue of the eye of most vertebrates and some molluscs. The optics of the eye create a focused two-dimensional image of the visual world on the retina, which then ...
are fatigued, lessening their ability to send the information to the brain. When white light is viewed, the red portions of light incident upon the eye are not transmitted as efficiently as the other wavelengths (or colors), and the result is the illusion of viewing the complementary color since the image is now biased by loss of the color, in this case red. As the receptors are given time to rest, the illusion vanishes. In the case of looking at the white light, red light is still incident upon the eye (as well as blue and green), however since the receptors for other light colors are also being fatigued, the eye will reach an equilibrium.
Practical applications
The use of complementary colors is an important aspect of
aesthetically pleasing art and graphic design. This also extends to other fields such as contrasting colors in
logo
A logo (abbreviation of logotype; ) is a graphic mark, emblem, or symbol used to aid and promote public identification and recognition. It may be of an abstract or figurative design or include the text of the name it represents as in a wordm ...
s and
retail display
Retail is the sale of goods and services to consumers, in contrast to wholesaling, which is sale to business or institutional customers. A retailer purchases goods in large quantities from manufacturers, directly or through a wholesaler, and t ...
. When placed next to each other, complements make each other appear brighter.
Complementary colors also have more practical uses. Because orange and blue are complementary colors, life rafts and life vests are traditionally orange, to provide the highest contrast and visibility when seen from ships or aircraft over the ocean.
Red and cyan glasses are used in the
Anaglyph 3D system to produce 3D images on computer screens.
File:US Navy 090906-N-5231R-055 Members of U.S. Joint Special Operations Task Force - Philippines (JSOTF-P) check life rafts for survivors Sept. 6, 2009 following the sinking of a Philippine super ferry.jpg, Orange life rafts provide the highest contrast and visibility seen against blue water.
File:Anaglyph glasses.png, Red and cyan glasses are used for viewing Anaglyph 3D three-dimensional images on the Internet or in print.
File:3D dusk on Desert.jpg, This image, viewed with red and cyan Anaglyph 3D glasses, will appear in three dimensions.
See also
*
Complementary wavelength
*
Inverted spectrum
*
Opponent process
External links
*Isabelle Roelofs and Fabien Petillion, ''La couleur expliquée aux artistes'', Editions Eyrolles, (2012), .
*John Gage, ''Couleur et Culture, Usages et significations de la couleur de l'Antiquité à l'abstraction'', (1993), Thames and Hudson
*Philip Ball, Histoire vivante des couleurs (2001), Hazan Publishers, Paris,
*Goethe, ''Theory of Colours'', trans. Charles Lock Eastlake, Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1982.
Notes and citations
{{Color topics
Artistic techniques
Color
Composition in visual art