

How to choose colours everyone likes - juliang
http://www.creativepro.com/article/how-choose-colors-everyone-likes

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jacobolus
This is bogus. Basically the popular combinations are "liked" because (a) they
are colorful, and (b) they have value (lightness) contrast, whereas the others
are both less colorful, and also have low value contrast. Completely removing
the color information from these suggested schemes reveals that value contrast
alone accounts for nearly all of the suggested effect.

It's easier to make combinations that satisfy conditions a and b using light
yellow and dark red or blue, etc., ... but all the part about picking colors
that "shift in accordance with the natural brightness" is nonsense. (I can
pick colors that shift "opposite the natural brightness" which look just as
good.)

Anyone wanting to really understand color should hit the books, or—if confined
to the internet—should take a look at
<http://www.handprint.com/HP/WCL/wcolor.html> and in particular this page:
<http://www.handprint.com/HP/WCL/color11.html>

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jacobolus
For those who don't believe me, here's an explicit graphical rebuttal to the
article:

<http://www.hcs.harvard.edu/~jrus/ycnews/nonsense.png>

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jcromartie
I actually find the original palettes to be more pleasing than your
reconstructed ones due to the hue shift. I can't help but go with what my eyes
are telling me.

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sp332
The original idea is that the ones on the left are uglier than the ones on the
right because of their brightness. The rebuttal switches the brightness
levels, which results in the _same progression_ , from ugly to less ugly.

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run4yourlives
You know, out of all the things a new start-up has to worry about, picking the
right colours is down there with ensuring scalability to amazon levels in
terms of priority.

I've been around the web for close to 15 years now, and all I can say is that
the only constant is you will not get consensus on matters of creative taste.

This is a fruitless exercise to occupy your time with, IMO.

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psranga
Interesting. I thought the color scheme was very important because you only
get 30 seconds or so to convince a first-time user to stay for the 31st
second.

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patio11
This is true, except the actual number is a lot closer to 3 than 30.

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stevejalim
I'm quite a fan of <http://kuler.adobe.com/> for colour schemes - hit the
slider controls icon to get to the good stuff, where you can apply one of six
rules to help you select related colours

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foulmouthboy
Another way to say this is, "How to cater to the lowest common denominator".

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SwellJoe
I've had more than the usual number of opportunities to trot out this quote
lately:

"No one ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American
public." - H.L. Mencken

