# Online Color Wheel? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 15, 2013, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/online-color-wheel/673989 "2013-11-15T15:45:03Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![GreenElf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/9de053/32.png) [@GreenElf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GreenElf)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2013, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/online-color-wheel/673989/1 "2013-11-15T15:45:03Z")
Is there an online color wheel that has much more than 24 colors? Or at least a list of colors by spectrum rather than by alphabetical order? ---
**Author:** ![Prof.Pepperwinkle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/prof.pepperwinkle/32/13627_2.png) [@Prof.Pepperwinkle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Prof.Pepperwinkle)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2013, 4:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/online-color-wheel/673989/2 "2013-11-15T16:02:25Z")
Wikipedia’s article on [Color Chart](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Color_chart) might be a good place to start. Check out the further links. ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2013, 4:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/online-color-wheel/673989/3 "2013-11-15T16:08:24Z")
Not a color wheel, but an exceptionally useful set of color tools I visit almost daily: [colrd.com](http://colrd.com). ---
**Author:** ![Leo\_Bloom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leo_bloom/32/10377_2.png) [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2013, 4:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/online-color-wheel/673989/4 "2013-11-15T16:09:31Z")
Try this for leads: [Google Color Management Search Engine](https://www.google.com/cse/home?cx=011545203169215625696:-yygy0imnne&hl=en) ---
**Author:** ![Duckster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/duckster/32/1244_2.png) [@Duckster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duckster)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2013, 7:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/online-color-wheel/673989/5 "2013-11-15T19:44:26Z")
A color wheel for printed colors or electronic colors? ---
**Author:** ![Space\_Vegetable](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6de8d8/32.png) [@Space\_Vegetable](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Space_Vegetable)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2013, 9:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/online-color-wheel/673989/6 "2013-11-15T21:25:41Z")
[ColorExplorer](http://colorexplorer.com/colorpicker.aspx) has a color wheel and other features for selecting colors. ---
**Author:** ![njtt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecd19e/32.png) [@njtt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/njtt)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2013, 11:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/online-color-wheel/673989/7 "2013-11-15T23:00:42Z")
> [@GreenElf](#): > > Is there an online color wheel that has much more than 24 colors? Or at least a list of colors by spectrum rather than by alphabetical order? You do realize, do you, that by no means all colors that we can see, or even have names for, are to be found in the spectrum? Also, most distinguishable colors, whether in the spectrum or not, do not have distinctive or generally accepted names. Indeed, I doubt whether there are anything like as many as 24 nameable colors (at least not with names that most people would recognize and be able to apply) in the spectrum, although there are certainly more distinguishable colors than that. ---
**Author:** ![njtt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecd19e/32.png) [@njtt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/njtt)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2013, 11:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/online-color-wheel/673989/8 "2013-11-15T23:02:19Z")
> [@Leo\_Bloom](#): > > Try this for leads: > > [Google Color Management Search Engine](https://www.google.com/cse/home?cx=011545203169215625696:-yygy0imnne&hl=en) That looks interesting. What will it do that a regular Google search for a color related term won’t do? ---
**Author:** ![jabiru](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/bbce88/32.png) [@jabiru](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jabiru)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2013, 11:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/online-color-wheel/673989/9 "2013-11-15T23:40:14Z")
Since the question has been more or less answered, I’d like to get in an all purpose wish that somewhere in the universe there’s a colour wheel for people like me who can barely dress themselves. That is, I can actually put on the clothes but I’m rubbish at putting ‘outfits’ together. I simply cannot work out what colours go well with each other, so I stick to mostly black pants + some other colour on top. I end up looking a bit like a liquorice allsort but nothing actually clashes. ---
**Author:** ![Leo\_Bloom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leo_bloom/32/10377_2.png) [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2013, 11:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/online-color-wheel/673989/10 "2013-11-15T23:49:13Z")
> [@njtt](#): > > That looks interesting. What will it do that a regular Google search for a color related term won’t do? Search me. ---
**Author:** ![njtt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecd19e/32.png) [@njtt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/njtt)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2013, 1:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/online-color-wheel/673989/11 "2013-11-16T01:40:33Z")
> [@jabiru](#): > > Since the question has been more or less answered, I’d like to get in an all purpose wish that somewhere in the universe there’s a colour wheel for people like me who can barely dress themselves. That is, I can actually put on the clothes but I’m rubbish at putting ‘outfits’ together. I simply cannot work out what colours go well with each other, so I stick to mostly black pants + some other colour on top. I end up looking a bit like a liquorice allsort but nothing actually clashes. I think the thing you are looking for is called a “woman”. ---
**Author:** ![robert\_columbia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e79b87/32.png) [@robert\_columbia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robert_columbia)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2013, 1:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/online-color-wheel/673989/12 "2013-11-16T01:54:58Z")
There are the traditional [X11 colors](http://cng.seas.rochester.edu/CNG/docs/x11color.html) from olden-time Unix. There are some quite proto-brony names like PeachPuff, MistyRose, and LemonChiffon. Guess nerds really were the same back then as they are now. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2013, 2:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/online-color-wheel/673989/13 "2013-11-16T02:16:08Z")
Years ago I created a system of colors that, rather than being a 2D “wheel,” was a 3D cylinder (conventional color wheels don’t take into account tints, shades and saturation). It’s probably on my old Mac, and unobtainable. I’ll poke around and see if I’ve got a copy of it somewhere. ---
**Author:** ![thelurkinghorror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2013, 4:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/online-color-wheel/673989/14 "2013-11-16T04:29:22Z")
> [@panache45](#): > > Years ago I created a system of colors that, rather than being a 2D “wheel,” was a 3D cylinder (conventional color wheels don’t take into account tints, shades and saturation). It’s probably on my old Mac, and unobtainable. I’ll poke around and see if I’ve got a copy of it somewhere. Like [HSV](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HSL_and_HSV) and similar? Munsell is too, in a fashion. For all non-printed colors, some can be converted to cylindrical (it’s hard to visualize!). The CIE LUV and LAB spaces can be converted to [LChuv](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CIELUV#Cylindrical_representation) and LChab spaces, respectively. Please note that the non-cylindrical representation of CIE LUV 1976 above **is** 3-dimensional, just luminance is fixed. ---
**Author:** ![jabiru](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/bbce88/32.png) [@jabiru](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jabiru)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2013, 5:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/online-color-wheel/673989/15 "2013-11-16T05:29:53Z")
> [@njtt](#): > > I think the thing you are looking for is called a “woman”. Sadly, I _am_ a woman. It’s not innate, unfortunately. ---
**Author:** ![cmyk](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmyk/32/3353_2.png) [@cmyk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmyk)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2013, 5:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/online-color-wheel/673989/16 "2013-11-16T05:41:12Z")
> [@GreenElf](#): > > Is there an online color wheel that has much more than 24 colors? Or at least a list of colors by spectrum rather than by alphabetical order? As **njtt** points out, only a handful of color names are standard and commonly agreed upon. It really depends on your intended application of the colors to determine which of hundreds of standardized color models and/or tools to suggest to you. ---
**Author:** ![robert\_columbia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e79b87/32.png) [@robert\_columbia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robert_columbia)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2013, 3:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/online-color-wheel/673989/17 "2013-11-17T03:46:09Z")
> [@cmyk](#): > > As **njtt** points out, only a handful of color names are standard and commonly agreed upon. It really depends on your intended application of the colors to determine which of hundreds of standardized color models and/or tools to suggest to you. And the boundaries of color names are also language and/or culture bound. Famously, the Japanese language historically considered blue and green to be shades of a single color, _ao_. Did you mean _ao_ like the sky, or _ao_ like the grass? Iirc, the Russian language today treats dark blue (_sinii_) and light blue (_goluboi_) as two separate, discrete colors in a simiar way English treats red and pink as two separate colors, even though pink is arguably just “light red”. ---
**Author:** ![robert\_columbia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e79b87/32.png) [@robert\_columbia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robert_columbia)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2013, 3:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/online-color-wheel/673989/18 "2013-11-17T03:48:55Z")
> [@cmyk](#): > > As **njtt** points out, only a handful of color names are standard and commonly agreed upon. It really depends on your intended application of the colors to determine which of hundreds of standardized color models and/or tools to suggest to you. Bingo. You have to ask yourself why you need a color wheel. For example, do you need to create a color-coding system where you need at least X minimum discrete colors? Are you working in a computer graphics environment where your color capabilities are limited by the technology, such as being limited to 32 bit RGB? ---
**Author:** ![GreenElf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/9de053/32.png) [@GreenElf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GreenElf)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2013, 7:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/online-color-wheel/673989/19 "2013-11-17T07:05:40Z")
I’m just trying to learn more about colors, and want to educate myself regarding the most common, standardized colors beyond the really basic 24 color wheel, probably between 64 and 128 would do. Crayola has a 120 crayon set, but many of the names, such as “macaroni and cheese” are somewhat nonstandard. > **[List of Crayola crayon colors](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Crayola_crayon_colors)** > > Since the introduction of Crayola drawing crayons by Binney & Smith in 1903, more than 200 distinctive colors have been produced in a wide variety of assortments. The table below represents all of the colors found in regular Crayola assortments from 1903 to the present.\[a\] Since the introduction of fluorescent crayons in the 1970s, the standard colors have been complemented by a number of specialty crayon assortments, represented in subsequent tables. > Along with the regular packs of crayons,... ---
**Author:** ![GreenElf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/9de053/32.png) [@GreenElf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GreenElf)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2013, 7:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/online-color-wheel/673989/20 "2013-11-17T07:14:30Z")
The color wheel is preferred because I don’t want an imbalance of colors, such as many hues of blue but less of yellow and so forth. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/online-color-wheel/673989.md?page=2)