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Kindly point towards theory/material to read for understanding colors and what makes a good color combinations. Mind it that I am not interested in say "Color combinations for web application" etc. More of the lines of say "Colors and humans".
Material free to read is what i am looking for.
Thanks
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The three primary colors are red, yellow and blue. In traditional color theory these are the 3 colors that cannot be formed by mixing any combinations or other colors. All other colors are derived from mixing these three colors. Secondary colors form the next most basic of the standard color wheels.
Color can sway thinking, change actions, and cause reactions. It can irritate or soothe your eyes, raise your blood pressure or suppress your appetite. When used in the right ways, color can even save on energy consumption. As a powerful form of communication, color is irreplaceable.
The primary colors are red, yellow, and blue. The secondary colors are green, orange, and purple. And the tertiary colors are yellow-orange, red-orange, red-purple, blue-purple, blue-green, and yellow-green.
In addition to the links I'd like to post my way of selecting pleasant colors:
NEVER ever use pure colors. Even if you want a pure color, don't!. If you want a strong bright green for example don't use 00ff00. Use something like 10e013 instead.
If you have one color that you like, and you want another one that fits to the first open a graphic program. Go to the color picker, type in your color and then switch to HSV mode. Then adjust either one of Hue, Saturation or Lightness. Don't modify two or all parameters, just one. That makes sure the color you choose is perceptually related to the color you've started with.
If you have no idea what color to start with get a classic masterpiece of painting from the net. Blur it a bit and then pick some nice colors from it. If you use some common sense it's hard not to end with pleasant colors this way.
Just to give you an example: I've just picked these colors:
From this painting:
http://www.cs.nthu.edu.tw/~sheu/Images/Monet.jpg
I know - it's not exaclty what you've asked for, but I learned these tricks the hard way.
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See the Color Scheme Generator, Color Wizard, Color Combinations. They all have some theory or rationale.
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Color and humans is a very complex topic. Scientists do not completely understand how we humans perceive color. (See also http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychophysics)
There are a lot good books out there but some free resources I use:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Color
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Color_vision
http://handprint.com/HP/WCL/wcolor.html
http://www.efg2.com/Lab/Library/Color/
http://www.cis.rit.edu/fairchild/
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Some theory here:
http://www.worqx.com/color/index.htm
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Robin Williams' "The Non-designer's Design Book" is a must-read for anyone who needs to prepare material for publication (including software UI), and includes a chapter on colour:
http://www.amazon.com/Non-Designers-Design-Book-3rd-Designers/dp/0321534042/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1233828208&sr=1-1
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Information Visualization by Colin Ware:
Contains much more than just color theory. But it's a great academic resource for understanding some basics of human perception and how to make sure your designs work well.
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