Creating Color Themes

    How to Create Color Bars

    Creating Color Themes

Steps:

1. Open Photoshop and select File + New.
2. Define a 400 x 300 image size.
3. Click the foreground color to open up the Color Picker.
4. Select a hue that you like from the vertical bar. Select varying values from the large color picking area. Once you have selected a color, click on OK.
5. Select the rectangular marquee tool.
6. Draw a small (but visible) square (holding the shift key down will make a perfect square).
7. Now fill that marquee with your foreground color (Alt + Backspace or Edit >Fill > Foreground Color.)
8. Select a new foreground color for your next square.
9. Repeat steps 6-9 until you have five squares of color.
10. Use the crop tool to trim your color bar.

Hint: If you decide to change any of the colors, you can select one of your squares with the Magic Wand tool. Then refill with the foreground color.

Create the following color bars:

1. Monochromatic: 5 values
2. Primary colors: 3 hues
3. Secondary colors: 3 hues
4. Tertiary colors: 3 hues
5. Analogous colors: 3 hues
6. Colors with similar values, but different hues: 5 hues
   Tip: to see if values are similar, change the image temporarily to greyscale mode (Image > Mode > Greyscale). Colors with similar values will be difficult to distinguish in greyscale. Restore the image to RGB mode using Undo.
7. Colors with similar hues, but different values: 5 values
   (See the tip under 6 above. Colors with different values will look quite different in greyscale.)
8. Pick a favorite few colors that work well in a theme and create a simple design or logo with text. Make a note of what color theme you're using. For example:
   
   Analogous color theme.
   
9. Save them as gif images.
10. Insert into a Web page: click here and save the example page if you need assistance with the HTML.
11. FTP your page and email your instructor with the absolute URL.