It’s probably happened to all of us at one point before. Everyone has their own opinion about everything. When you add a family or even just a lover to the mix, even making those minor color decor changes in your home can sometimes bring up arguments.
That’s right, I’m talking about the color wars.
A friend posted this video yesterday and I thought to myself, “This is pretty much perfect.” From someone who writes about colors, even yours truly has a difficult time weeding through the spectrum of color names.
How we see color is just as complex as how we interpret color. As an exercise, try using this online test via X-Rite.com based on the official FM100 Hue Test by X-Rite to gauge your ability to identify differences in color hues. The results of the test will help tell you a lot.
So how does one interpret color scientifically?
Joe Hansen, Ph.D. biologist and host/writer of PBS Digital Studios’ It’s Okay to be Smart weighed in on his Tumblr blog:
“One of the most mind-boggling parts of color theory is the observation that two different colors of light, when mixed, can create a new color. For instance, red and green light shining together, like from the pixels of a TV or computer screen, give the perception of yellow. “
The process Joe is referring to is the RGB color model. It is a bit different than the CMYK model we covered earlier. We will talk more in detail about the additive color process though in a later blog.
Joe’s blog continued:
“Different colors of light each have their own characteristic wavelength and the yellow coming from your monitor is still red and green wavelengths traveling simultaneously toward your eye. The perception of yellow, or any “in-between” color, comes from simultaneously activating more than one kind of “cone" color receptor in the back of your eye.”
Joe referred to the following video from Ted Ed for a more in depth look at the biologist’s view of color:
Interpretation of color, even after given a scientific look-see, can still be rather humorous. Let’s take a look at some of the results for color names from the same study our top image referred to.
Xkcd discovered from their survey that color names differ vastly from men to women. According to them:
“Here are the color names most disproportionately popular among women:
- Dusty Teal
- Blush Pink
- Dusty Lavender
- Butter Yellow
- Dusky Rose”
For those interested in what Xkcd’s male survey counterparts had to say, be forewarned as you click here.
Whatever color you interpret, whatever name you decide upon, remember that Preval is here for you. We don’t care if it’s “dusty rose” or “baige” or even just green. It’s your turn to win the color war. Take one of our Preval Sprayers or Preval vFan Airbrush Systems and fire away. We won’t even tell who shot first.