I’m trying to organize a list of colors for a puzzle game. I can find reliable lists (names and colors values) of the primary, secondary, and tertiary RGB colors – but I can’t find any reliable list beyond this.
Color wheels either leave them out, or pile them in with millions of other colors and no names.
Is there any reliable source for a list of color considered “quaternary” and possibly even colors in layers beyond that?
Answer
I used the list of RYB quaternary colours at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tertiary_color#Tertiary-_and_quaternary-color_terms to fill in some of the gaps between the CMY tertiary colours.
I’ve listed the CMY tertiary colours from that article and indented proposed names for the quaternary colours.
- Red
- Crimson (or Russet)
- Rose
- Aubergine
- Magenta
- Amethyst
- Violet
- Indigo
- Blue
- (Cerulean)
- Azure
- (Celeste)
- Cyan
- (Aquamarine)
- Spring green
- (Emerald)
- Green
- Apple green
- Chartreuse
- (Citron)
- Yellow
- Amber
- Orange
- Vermilion
- Red
I got these names by translating the CMY colour names into RYB equivalents and then looking for the names of intermediate CMY colours. I used the following equivalencies
- CMY – RYB – (CMY colours mixed)
- Magenta – Purple (blue – red)
- Rose – Magenta (red – magenta)
- Violet – Violet (magenta – blue)
- Cyan – Teal (blue – green)
- Azure – Turquoise (blue – cyan)
- Spring green – Viridian (cyan – green)
The CMY colour will be more saturated than the RYB equivalent.
Citron is a tertiary colour, a combination of green and orange, which lands between yellow and chartreuse on the colour wheel. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:RBG_color_wheel.svg) Likewise, russet (orange and RYB purple, or orange and CMY magenta), coincides with crimson, half-way between rose and red.
I couldn’t get the quaternary colours from blue to green from that page, so the suggestions above are just for completeness.
Attribution
Source : Link , Question Author : helion3 , Answer Author : Gavin Smith