The Color Juxtaposition Simulation

Introduction

At most universities and colleges, students majoring in Art take a course with a title along the lines of “Two-dimensional Design”, in which they study, among other things, colors and their interactions. Commonly, 2-D Design students perform an exercise in which they mix pigments to produce various colors, paint small boards with those colors, then juxtapose those squares pairwise (i.e., placing two squares side-by-side, two colors at a time) and observe the appearance of the ‘line of contact’ between the two squares.

In most 2-D courses, students are encouraged to think in terms of primary and complementary colors, because of their importance in human perception and, therefore, in art. However, the human eye perceives lliterally thousands of colors (more than 10,000 by some estimates), By conducting the exercises included with this simulation, you will replicate that exercise and, in the process, make what I think you will agree are some very surprising observations about color vision.

What Does The Simulation Allow You To Do?

The simulation generates an interface between two panels whose colors you specify. Controls are provided that let you color each panel with one of nine colors: the three primary colors (Red, Green, or Blue), the three complementary colors (Yellow, Cyan, or Magenta), or White, Grey, or Black. You can select the colors from seven different pre-defined colors, or use controls that let you directly specify the RGB (Red, Green, and Blue) values of the pixels that your computer’s monitor uses to generate color on its screen. In addition, you can orient the interface between the panels horizontally, vertically, or diagonally in your field of vision.

What Does The Simulation’s Display Look Like?

When you start the simulation, you will see a display that looks something like this:

The controls along the right side of the display are pretty much self-explanatory, and work the same as in other simulations in this series. (If you need a ‘refresher course’ in how to use the controls, click here) You can change the color of the upper or lower square/triangle (or the left or right square in the vertical orientation) either by clicking one of the seven radio buttons to the right of the panel whose color you wish to change, or by clicking the “USE SLIDERS?” radio button and using the corresponding sliders/textfields to specify the RGB values for the panel. Note that if you use the textfields to enter numerical RGB values, you’ll need to click the “Go” button to implement any changes you’ve entered.

The Reset button will return the colors of the display to their default values (blue & orange) without affecting the orientation of the interface. You may use this option at any time.