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All of these links go to web sites that explain color and its uses, modes and spaces.
Apple Quicktime Color Space
Color Space FAQs
Color Spaces
Computer Graphics Color Space
Crayola Creativity Center
designing.com
EasyRGB
efg's Color Reference Library
PeachPit's Color Mode Primer
Rich Franzen's Wheel of Saturation, Intensity, and Hue
The Information Below is from ColorTherory Lesson 8 at http://66.70.72.50/forum/color_theory/lesson8.html Please visit their site for the complete text and excellent tutorials Color Expressions ShadeThe addition of black to the colors.ToneThe addition of gray to the colors.TintThe addition of white to the colors.HueThe defining property of a color. Tells which wavelength it's at. What gives the color its name.BrightnessThe amount of light reflected by the given color.SaturationConcentration of a color - how intense it is. A highly saturated color is vivid and colorful, while a lowly saturated one us more neutral and closer to black/white.ContrastA reduction of tone (grays). Makes the light and dark areas stand more apart, and colors seem more vivid as a result. (Try setting contrast to the minimum value in your gfx editor - the result is a solid gray)DitheringUsing differently colored pixels in patterns to simulate colors not found in the palette.GamutA color that is in gamut can be replicated in CMYK, while if it's out of gamut, the color does not have an exact replica in CMYK.HLSAnother way of defining colors. HLS = Hue, Light, Saturation. It let's you pick the hue, then the light, then the saturation. It is an intuitive way of describing and defining colors. With light as 100%, the color will be white no matter what the values of Hue and Saturation, and with light at 0%, the color will be black no matter whatHSBYet another way of defining colors. HSB = Hue, Saturation, Brightness. It let's you pick the hue, then the saturation, then the brightness level. Unlike HLS, 100% brightness will not produce white, it will produce the brightest available RGB color of the currently selected hue. Hue is defined as degrees of the visible spectrum, 0-360 (365 is the same as 5). The saturation is the strength/purity of the color - how much gray that's contained by it. 0% is gray, 100% is fully saturated. At saturation 0%, 100% brightness produces white, and 0% black.Complementary colorThe natural counterpart to a color. If you stare at a colored square in front of a white wall for a while, the color of the square your eye 'makes up' when the real square is removed, is the complementary color. Complementaries can't be measured in a scientific way (they're really just optical illusions created by your eyes), but they're nevertheless very real, and can have huge impact when used properly.
ShadeThe addition of black to the colors.ToneThe addition of gray to the colors.TintThe addition of white to the colors.HueThe defining property of a color. Tells which wavelength it's at. What gives the color its name.BrightnessThe amount of light reflected by the given color.SaturationConcentration of a color - how intense it is. A highly saturated color is vivid and colorful, while a lowly saturated one us more neutral and closer to black/white.ContrastA reduction of tone (grays). Makes the light and dark areas stand more apart, and colors seem more vivid as a result. (Try setting contrast to the minimum value in your gfx editor - the result is a solid gray)DitheringUsing differently colored pixels in patterns to simulate colors not found in the palette.GamutA color that is in gamut can be replicated in CMYK, while if it's out of gamut, the color does not have an exact replica in CMYK.HLSAnother way of defining colors. HLS = Hue, Light, Saturation. It let's you pick the hue, then the light, then the saturation. It is an intuitive way of describing and defining colors. With light as 100%, the color will be white no matter what the values of Hue and Saturation, and with light at 0%, the color will be black no matter whatHSBYet another way of defining colors. HSB = Hue, Saturation, Brightness. It let's you pick the hue, then the saturation, then the brightness level. Unlike HLS, 100% brightness will not produce white, it will produce the brightest available RGB color of the currently selected hue. Hue is defined as degrees of the visible spectrum, 0-360 (365 is the same as 5). The saturation is the strength/purity of the color - how much gray that's contained by it. 0% is gray, 100% is fully saturated. At saturation 0%, 100% brightness produces white, and 0% black.Complementary colorThe natural counterpart to a color. If you stare at a colored square in front of a white wall for a while, the color of the square your eye 'makes up' when the real square is removed, is the complementary color. Complementaries can't be measured in a scientific way (they're really just optical illusions created by your eyes), but they're nevertheless very real, and can have huge impact when used properly.
