An Investigation into the Meaning of Colour Harmony Using Psychophysical Techniques

Due to the lack of consistency in defining colour harmony by different people, the present research was focused on finding the meaning of colour harmony. The relationships between colour harmony and colour pleasantness, beauty, calmness, and hue contrast were examined in order to fascinate the selections of the most harmonious colour combinations in different applications. A psychophysical experiment carried out for two colour combinations. On the basis of a novel method of data analysis, the results show that the term of colour harmony is not the same as any of the inspected colour terms. However, the meaning of colour harmony is much closer to the meaning of the colour beauty and the colour calmness. The concepts of colour beauty and colour pleasantness are also similar to each other. Furthermore, it seems that the male observers have a less tendency in selecting the complementary colour harmony pairs than the female observers. J. Color Sci. Tech. 8 2014), 85-92©. Institute for Color Science and Technology.