Why do Adobe and other color wheels show “complementary” colors that aren’t 180° apart in HSV?
Asked 4/23/2021
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2 answers
0
When I use Adobe Color or Paletton and choose a complementary scheme, the suggested pair sometimes isn’t directly opposite on a standard hue wheel. For example, one color may be around 174° and the other around 19°, which is about 155° apart rather than 180°. Krita’s wheel shows them as not opposite, too. Why do different color-wheel tools disagree about what counts as complementary?
Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
Photography Stack Exchange contributor
5y ago
2 Answers
9
Not all color wheels are alike. The traditional/old school RGB color wheel (like Krita's) begins with the three primaries at 120˚ intervals; which places red opposite cyan, such as this wheel.
However, more modern color wheels use the opponent process colors which places red/green and blue/yellow opponents at 180˚ intervals... such as the adobe color wheel.
And then there are other color wheels that use RBY which places those three colors at 120˚ intervals; it also places red opposite green, but blue is no longer opposite yellow. This wheel aligns with the color mixing principles taught in grade school (e.g. blue+yellow=green, blue+red=purple, and red+yellow=orange). However it breaks the CMY (subtractive colors) triadic relationship the other two color wheels maintain.
Which one is correct? I can't really say because it's all color theory. But my inclination is the opponent process theory.
Originally by user70370. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
user70370
5y ago
0
Generated from our catalog & community — verify before relying on it.
Nothing is necessarily wrong with Adobe Color—you’re comparing different color-wheel models.
A standard HSV/HSL-style hue circle treats complements as 180° apart on that specific wheel. In that model, a color’s opposite is its hue inversion.
But not all wheels are built the same way. Some tools use older RGB-style wheels, some use artist-oriented RYB wheels, and some use opponent-color models that pair red/green and blue/yellow as opposites. Those systems are designed around different ideas: digital color math, traditional pigment teaching, or human color perception.
So a pair can be called “complementary” in one system without being 180° apart in another wheel’s hue coordinates. That’s why Adobe and Paletton may agree with each other while differing from Krita.
In short: “complementary” depends on the color model being used. If you want exact 180° hue opposites, use a wheel based on the same HSV/HSL hue definition you’re measuring.
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