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I am colorblind and need to know the names of colors when I'm working with colors in illustrator.

Forum|Forum|3 years ago
May 9, 2022
4 replies
1124 views

I'd love to have your advice or places to go. Right now, it's just a guessing game.

Draw and design

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Correct answer Mike_Gondek10189183

Michael the person who taught me how to color trap and do pullbacks, for print over 35 years ago was color blind, so hope I can be of help to you as he was to me.

I would double-click on the color in swatches. If a spot color like PMS you can temporarily switch the Color Mode to see the numeric values, then just cancel.

Mike_Gondek10189183

Correct answer

Community Expert

Michael the person who taught me how to color trap and do pullbacks, for print over 35 years ago was color blind, so hope I can be of help to you as he was to me.

I would double-click on the color in swatches. If a spot color like PMS you can temporarily switch the Color Mode to see the numeric values, then just cancel.

M

Michael24379944f1wxAuthor

Participant

Mike, this sounds like a plan! I think, in the interest of efficiency over time, that I might find colors with particular number values and then write them down - keep track of them - for easy reference when I'm putting a piece of work together. Unlike others who can just eyeball a color - much faster - I'll have a whole process to go through - plus some checking with another (no doubt my wife...) to see if what I've come up with complements other colors. So shortcuts, over time, will help.

And, of course, I'll learn how to do it better over time.

Thanks for the great insights.

Michael

Jacob Bugge

Community Expert

Michael,

A few small comments on RGB values.

RGB values span everything from (completely) black at RGB 0,0,0 to white at RGB 255,255,255, and it is impossible to obtain colours that are pale/full of light without having nonzero/significant values across R, G, and B, just as it is impossible to obtain really dark colours with any high values among R, G, and B.

On either side of a bright red with RGB 255,0,0 you can have (much) paler reds such as RGB 255,216,216 and (much) darker reds such as RGB 96,0,0.

In the former case, the addition of equal values of G and B corresponds to the addition of white/light, and in the latter case the lowering of the R value removes light, comparable to an addition of black in CMYK.

And there is no need to worry too much about exact RGB (and CMYK) values.

Jacob Bugge

Community Expert

Michael,

At least to start with, you can use a combination of the following tools when you have selected a Fill or Stroke Color:

The Color Picker and the Color panel as described here,

https://helpx.adobe.com/illustrator/using/selecting-colors.html

along with one or more RGB colour wheel presentations, choosing (any number of) whichever suit you best, such as here,

https://duckduckgo.com/?t=ffab&q=rgb+colour+wheel&atb=v320-1&ia=web

In this context, you can combine the H = Hue in the HSB representation (including S = Saturation and B = Brightness later), and the R = Red and G = Green and B = Blue in the RGB representation (leaving the CMYK representation till later), and further draw on the the names of the colours in the colour wheel.

Each H value is an angle corresponding to (the outer rim of) a colour wheel based on the RGB colour model, with the following RGB values at at 100% Saturation and 100% Brightness:

360/0 degees corresponding to Red (RGB 255.0,0),
60 degrees corresponding to Yellow (RGB 255,255,0),
120 degrees corresponding to Green (RGB 0,255,0),
180 degrees corresponding to Cyan (RGB 0,255,255)
240 degrees corresponding to Blue (RGB 0,0,255),
300 degrees corresponding to Magenta (RGB 255,0,255).

Other angles in between give further subdivisions, with corresponding colour names.

As a next step you can move on to include other values of Saturation and Brightness which correspond to more complex combinations of RGB and corresponding cololur names.

And further along you can include the CMYK values, Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, Black; you can see the basic way the Cyan, Magenta, and Yellow, fit into the colour wheel/H values.

M

Michael24379944f1wxAuthor

Participant

Jason, thank you so much for taking the time to help me here. I'll try all
of that. I wish there were numbers which just told the color (or the name
of the color itself). I don't need much nuance, just trying to avoid
orange when I'm trying for red or yellow. Navy blue instead of violet.

I'm grateful for your help.

Michael

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Michael Kroth

[personal information removed by moderator]

Jacob Bugge

Community Expert

Michael,

The Hue is the single number that tells the colour by placing it on the RGB colour wheel. You can make your own colour wheel with corresponding hue values and names; and/or if you are lucky you may be able to find a suitable colour wheel to use as a(n additional) reference; different sources use different colour names.

You can use the following approach, described for the two colours to avoid that you mentioned:

To avoid orange:

Red is (close to) 360/0 degrees, green is 120 degrees, so yellow is midway at 60 degrees; to avoid orange you need to keep clear of the (midlle part of) the range between those in other words avoid values round 30 degrees.

To make sure, you can also look at the RGB values:

When the Red value is the same as the Green value (255 for both with full saturation and brightness), you have yellow.

With a higher value of Red you have reddish yellow or even yellowish red, in other words the range of colours called/including orange.

With a higher value of Green you are in the the greenish yellow to yellowish green range, which you may also wish to avoid.

To avoid violet, or the opposite: To avoid navy blue (addition):

Navy blue is a dark Blue corresponding to about a Hue of 240 degrees and RGB 0,0,128, note the lower (RG)B value which corresponds to the darkness,

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Navy_blue

Violet is an often similarly dark colour but on the red side (opposite to green) so it is towards the Magenta at 300 degrees, so to avoid violet you need to stay (close) to the (blue) Hue 240 degrees rather than going up into the range round 270 degrees.

Addition: obviously, if you wish to avoid navy blue and obtain violet you need to go above the Hue 240 degrees and get up towards/to/past about 270 degrees depending on the desired extent of reddishness.

Something else to avoid, at least for now:

You may wish to avoid the confusion and complexity of going into general descriptions of the representations HSL and HSV = HSB,

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HSL_and_HSV

Monika Gause

Community Expert

Can you please be more specific?

WHen using the swatches panel you can set it to list. And then you will see whatever name they have been given by their creators. By default: the inks breakdown.

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