Whether you are new to color theory, or a pro graphic designer, knowing your way around a color wheel can help you save time, money and effort in the long run!
Our HSL Color Wheel Chart uses an interactive layout to enhance your understanding of the (HSL) model – a popular color model used by many digital artists and web developers.
Using this Chart, you can learn to manipulate HSV in design. By the time you are done, you will be able to visualize the relationships between its component values: hue, saturation, and lightness. This will give you a better idea of how to achieve desired color pallets in both digital and traditional applications.
But what’s so great about HSV anyway?
For one, it allows you to compare and analyze colors in a more perceptual (or human) way. Allowing you to create naturally coordinated color themes simply by looking at where your color is (in angular terms). You can then add a shade of yellow (for lightness) and gray (for saturation) until you find the right color.
At WordLayouts, we provide a ready-made Chart free of cost. Our chart is available for instant download in pdf., and ADOBE formats. This chart can be extremely useful for design instructors who wish to guide HSL beginners on how to make optimal use of HSV color models when creating new color themes and combinations.
In the following sections, we discuss each feature of our Chart:
The HSV Value
If you are new to color science, it might take a little while for you to figure out how HSV values really work. Our Chart serves as a visual aid to help you understand the component values of Hue-Saturation-Lightness in easy, graphical terms.
Where,
- Hue refers to color defined by wavelength, measured here as an angle on the wheel from 0° to 360° (e.g., 0° = red, 240° = blue)
- Saturation shows how intense or pure a color is, 0% being a shade of gray and 100% being the full color.
- Lightness speaks to the element of white in a color, defined as a % from black (0%) to white (100%).
Now, let’s see how these values are visualized in our Chart:
What’s a Color Wheel?
Color wheels are a fun and useful way to mix different hues and create visually impactful themes.
As you move around the wheel, you find that each angle corresponds to a specific color, where 0° is red, 120° is green, and 240° is blue.
Now that you can see how different hues are related to each other, you can experiment with color schemes based on where your color is relative to other colors in the wheel. When you have this foundation of knowledge, you’ll be able to play with color and use it to your advantage.
Let’s say you want a shade of sky blue for your new wall, but can’t decide what to pair it with? Simply by looking at standard color schemes on the wheel, you can create harmonious sets of coordinates that go well together, for instance:
Triadic: Points that are equally spaced from each other on the wheel create a triadic scheme.
The color sky-blue with an HSL value of (217, 54%, 75%) gives:
Analogous: Points next to each other on the color wheel will give you an analogous color scheme, such as:
Color Boxes
For graphic illustrators, boxes are a useful tool to navigate color space. With numbered boxes for 12 specific colors, our Chart makes sure you don’t waste any time figuring out where each (HSL) value is on the wheel.
You can also use color boxes to show how a small change in saturation or lightness can create an impressive range of diverse colors. This is because an HSL model lets you adjust colors to make them look more or less vibrant, muted, cool or warm (than the original hue), allowing you to curate the design to your own branding or artistic needs.
Sliding Rows
The Chart also contains 2 sliding rows to demonstrate what happens when you adjust the degree of Lightness and Saturation in your desired hue.
Mathematically, in an HSL model, this is only possible because saturation and lightness are both linear dimensions.
In the following examples, we adjust each of these values by 10% while sticking to the same hue:
Increasing Saturation in Red
Increasing Lightness in Red
Mood Arrow
In addition, our Chart includes a mood arrow to help you identify cool or warm colors.
Located on opposite sides of the wheel, with warm colors, such as orange and yellow, and cool colors including blue and purple – this feature makes it easy for you to select colors for any design or space. Warm or cool undertones can help you create more visually appealing contrasts while evoking different emotions in a viewer.
Convertible value charts
Our Chart also compares HSL values with points in RGB, making it easy for you to translate color choices in other coding formats. Note that even though RGB and HSL share the same color space, they reach their coordinates using very different techniques.
RGB defines color by its wavelength on the natural light spectrum, while HSV uses coordinates based on three separate values (one angular and two linear).
Luckily for web developers, HSV values can be converted to color points in other models such as RGB/RGBA or HEX using simple math. This has been done already for the colors used in this Chart.
HSL or RGB – What’s Better?
When it comes to web design, HSL has a competitive edge over RGB because it is more flexible. Let’s say you want to use the color ‘hot pink’ for your site’s interface but don’t want to overwhelm a viewer with a loud splash of color.
In an HSL model, all you need to do is adjust the second value (Saturation) to find a less intense version of hot pink. To achieve the same visual effect in RGB, you will need to adjust all 3 values for red, green and blue, which is not very quick or intuitive.
Flexibility allows HSL users to explore colors with more precision and greater maneuverability when generating new combinations. Compared to RGB, HSV is also credited for being more finely attuned to how humans actually perceive color depth and intensity.
Be aware that color combinations in these charts may vary significantly based on the medium used (e.g., watercolor, acrylic, digital). You must also consider other factors such as display settings (say, night mode and resolution) that can greatly affect how your desired color looks on screen.
If you enjoyed learning about HSL color models, here’s a fun online tool to test your newfound knowledge.
Our print-ready HSL Chart breaks down the process of color mixing for you using color wheels, boxes, gradients and arrows. We also provide blank charts, encouraging you to brush up your color analysis skills as you experiment with new color models.
To sum up, if you are on the lookout for easy-to-use educational content for your classrooms or design studio, our professionally designed and well-researched Chart is a good place to start.
