..Yellow, Green, Blue*

XD

@elasticintelligence

It is actually a deficit. It's not an intrepreation. Thats what those color pattern charts are for. When you should see a orange 21 made up of all those dots...my eyes can't differentiate between the shades, and they essentially drop off the map, and I don't see them.

It's in fact a hereditary defict that really only manifests in men. However it is caried by the woman. Explanation: My mother's father had what I had. My mother does not have it, women EXTREMELY RARELY EVER get it, however they carry it and pass it down. I have it, but my brother does not, nor does anyone on my father's side have it. If I have a daughter, who has a son, there's a chance he will have it.

I wish i could just say "Oh i have a creative intrepreation of colors" haha nope, my eyes are effective!!

Oh yeah I'm near-sighted, and wear glasses but that's got nothing to do with it haha.

@ xhashmeerx

I recently took my son to the eye doctor for a check up. The dr told me that men are more likely to be color blind than women, and that men often are blue-green colorblind or have the deficiency that you speak of. Thankfully, my son's vision is fine, no colorblindness at all.

shucks, i'm still trying to figure out what is the color of love....[color=#FF99CC][/color][font="Georgia"][/font]

xhashmeerx: Wow, you've pretty much summed up my own life's experience regarding colours. It's uncanny really. Like you, I too am a colour blind (deficient?) web designer. And yes, I've played that "what colour is this?" game more times than I can count.

The strange thing though, is that I'm fascinated by colours and I truly love colourful things. Moreover, I'm very intrigued as to why certain mixes of colours look better than others especially since I usually can't accurately tell you what those colours are! What really intrigues me is that by no means has my colour blindness stopped me from enjoying colour. Most people, when they hear about colour blindness suppose that my world must be bland and washed out but nothing could be further from the truth. I really have a hard time understanding it, let alone explaining it.

After working at a sign shop for a few years, I made a fascinating discovery about how we all see color. While some people can see a broader range of colors, others see a more limited range of colors. Then there are color-blind people who see no range in color at all. Opposite to color-blind people there a select few out there who can nail a color to the wall at a glance, and I've seen the most unlikely of candidates do just that. It's completely wild! Must be a genetic thing.

That's so funny... I've always wondered this. Ever since Grade 7 when we had a little section on colour, the thought occurred to me. Never knew anyone else thought about that too though, lol.

I have a few thoughts to add:

first, I wonder what is the percentage of men and women who use this website. (and not to be controversial but respectful, how many gay men versus straight men - homosexuality in men is super interesting to me)

I ask this because some of my friends make fun of my "colour website" - but it's mostly my male roomate who doesn't understand why i like this so much. many more of my girl-friends are interested at least. I've heard it that men and women perceive ranges differently - the subtleties in colours are lost to so many men (luiza, why do you have 10 green shirts? what? no, this is green, this is chartreuse, this is forest, this is green-blue, this is blue-green, etc.)

I also can imagine some hereditary differences between men and women's perceptions too. men see pattern differently, movement, coordination, etc (maybe biologically influenced from when we were hunter/gatherers). I can imagine that men and women perceive the natural world differently.

second, about us seeing colours differently - i want to address the way we feel about certain colours. It has been readily studied that different colours evoke different emotions and physical feelings.thinking about the way that colour makes us feel rather than our eyes see may help us think about our perceptions.

i don't know if this is kooky, but i've read about blind people being able to feel the influence of colours and body parts, like skin, reacting to colours as well.

this doesn't seem too far fetched because our bodies would be responding to different wavelengths, which is rather legit.

just adding to the convo - i love you guys! i am finally in a community where people understand my obsession.

love, Lulu

I read an article some time this year that said that a small percentage of the population could perceive colors in even slighter gradiations than other people, like color-blindness in reverse. I've been looking for it, but I can't find it right now. So there is some evidence that humans do perceive colors in different ways, but as a matter of degree, not hue.

I also remember being in elementary school looking up at the posters on the wall explaining colors, like a sun for yellow, a tree for green and thinking, 'what if someone is seeing the sun as purple?' - A freaky thought to an 8 yr old mind. :) How would we ever know?

Ok, I have several thoughts to add.

I listened to a lecture once by Don Miguel Ruiz, who basically said: We as humans lack the ability to express exactly what he hear, see, feel etc. to another human. No matter how detailed we try and make our communication, some parts will be lost in translation. I try and tell you about a picture I saw... It was a deep red, almost a muddy clay red and there was an almost black heart shape right in the middle of it. The image in your mind of a deep muddy red could be totally different from the one I saw, or tried to convey... It could have been a more rusty copper color, but my experiences in life lend to a familiarity with muddy reds that you might not have any idea about. Even if I was to try and take a photo of the picture and show it to you... your eyes see colors differently than I do... Depending on the angle I show you the photograph or how bright the lights are in the room we are in compared to the lights in the room when I took the photo... everything can look differently.

Also, I would recommend reading the book, The Giver. Is about a future world where people have stopped seeing colors and it wasn't absolutely necessary for survival. In the book a young boy begins to see and experience colors... I'm sure COLOURlovers would enjoy it.

So basically... what you see... nobody else will ever see the exact same thing...

As for LuLu's question about Male / Female ratio on the site... Last time we did a survey... and that was a while ago it was about %60 female. I'm not sure about sexual orientation as that wasn't a question on the survey. It is interesting to see that typically straight males would not be "into" color, but the site was started and built by straight men... so much for stereotypes.

PureForm wrote:

Interesting point ... I've thought about that too. Being in web development for a while now I see the following colors being defined as:

Red:


This is really interesting too. I still have trouble considering RGB as primary colors. When color correcting photographs back in the old days, and doing color separations we talked in terms of CMYK. And most of my work is in reflective color, and the theory makes no sense perhaps but the primary colors I still mix in my head are YELLOW, RED and BLUE; GREEN is a secondary color.

Color hasn't changed. Whatever it is and however we experience it? I find it amazing. Whatever you all do to mix these beautiful colors and palettes. Keep it up!

Green:


Blue:

What an interesting read!
Apart from the question is your green my blue or teal, I was always wondering whether people see greys the same way or if some people see more colour in them as others? I've argued with my partner about certain shades of grey that just looked grey to me but to him they were purple. It also happened that I'd say it's a green and he'd say it's simply grey. Playing with colours on this site has definitely developed my sensitivity for colour in grey and I think I am more receptive to traces of them in grey nowadays than I ever was before.

Yeah, at first glance I thought, "oh, this site is in greys and white" HA! its a very muted green I think. yay for colourlovers :D

velveteen wrote:

I wonder this all the time... omg, I'm so glad I'm not the only one... :D

one of my friends told me one time that he thinks we all really have the same favorite color... we just happen to call it different things... if that makes sense. :D

that's definitely more of a cute, romantic idea than a valid one.

jaimebienlesfruits wrote:

Hey, adding to this, thought not totally relevant, is something I've thought about from time to time since I was 11. See, what if time is not really what we think it is. Say, suppose we all take 5 seconds or something to react to things. For example, I see a car smash into a lamppost, but I only realise that 5 seconds later. I tell the person next to me about it after that 5 seconds, but he also takes another 5 seconds to process it. It's like a whole chain reaction!

er, i don't see what that has to do with time, maybe you could explain it to me? i'm curious about what you're saying here. time and space as a concept, however, is different from the amount of time it takes electrical pulses in your body to reach your brain. i don't understand the connection you're making. :)

ruecian wrote:

I've spoken about this topic to many friends, and even some strangers, and so much I've learned to be true: our perspectives are consistent enough that we can learn green as "green" and blue as "blue." It's hard to argue something that fits our logical tendencies, so we learn a set system. But who's to say that my blue isn't someone's yellow or purple. They say colour is a result of visible light being reflected back from the object off of which it is bounced, suggesting that objects are really every colour but as we see them. Then consider that there are some people with light sensitive eyes -- like me -- and think about the bounced light.

I've also heard people become quite passionate about blue-purple, green-blue, and dark jeans, always debating what colours things really are.

It's also a large number of people that can't perceive actual indigo.

And please, don't ever ask for slaps for talking. Great topic, and great responses.

agreed!


there's a method to colours that match. Person 1 saw green as Person 2 saw blue, the rest of the visible spectrum (including both hue and value) would have to be mathematically contiguous with each other. otherwise, colours would clash and the palettes on this website wouldn't match to Person 1, but be perfect to Person 2.

besides those who are colour blind, i'm pretty sure it just depends on the amount of light their eye receives. for example, when on certain drugs your pupils dilate and colours appear brighter. if the colours are mathematically continguous, than it's totally plausible.