Colour Interaction

During the development of colour theory through the years, general guidelines for the usage of colour combinations were made. At the stage of outlining your map concept or documents that go with it, they will serve you, the cartographer, as a starting point for colour selection.

Pleasing combinations:

• Large differences in lightness or brightness, the light-dark contrast generates pleasant figure ground relationships
• Choose a rather light or rather black background, but try to avoid an intermediate background colour
• Figure colour needs to be definitely lighter or darker than the background colour
• Pure or vivid colours in combination with grey are pleasant
• Among cold and warm tones of equal brilliance, the warm will advance and the cold retreat. Distant objects seem colder because of the intervening depth of air
• A pure colour advances relative to a duller one of equal brilliance.
• On white background, violet seems to advance, while yellow, just as any light tone, is held back.
• Warm colours take on figural qualities better than cold colours, which are mostly better for background creation
• Identical hues appear differently, depending on their environment