Guy Corbishley/Alamy
Richard Miller
London, UK
If we think first of pure spectral colours consisting of a single wavelength of light, then there’s a simple, obvious answer: colours that are closer together on a rainbow don’t clash as much.
However, what humans perceive as colour usually consists of a mixture of different wavelengths of light. Any of these can be approximated to some extent by combining different primary colours. In these systems, each colour can be thought of as a single point in a three-dimensional space, so one natural way to measure colour similarity is by calculating the distance between the points.
This isn’t necessarily as simple as it might appear however, because humans are better at telling apart some colours than others due to the construction of our eyes, which contain a mixture of cells that are each sensitive to different particular wavelengths. Most people have three kinds, but a minority have four. Pairs of colours might appear to clash more or less depending on where they are relative to the parts of the colour space that the viewer can most easily distinguish. And there is plenty of scope for people to disagree due to differences in their vision.
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There is plenty of scope for people to disagree on which colours clash due to differences in their vision
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Alan Wilson
Tollesbury, Essex, UK
This concept is incomprehensible to me. As far as I’m concerned, there are no colours that either clash or complement each other: any combination is equally acceptable. I don’t have any colour-blindness. My late wife despaired of me and insisted on checking my clothes before I left the house, which I found inexplicable but accepted in the interests of marital harmony.
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