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Ask HN: Measuring the Aesthetic Quality of a Set of Colors?

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Ask HN: Measuring the Aesthetic Quality of a Set of Colors?

#1

Post by fp »

For a side project I would like to automatically determine the aesthetic quality of a set of colors. I was wondering if there are metrics by which I could measure it.

For instance if I had these two 'color schemes':

  http://beta.dailycolorscheme.com/archive/2006/09/20
  http://beta.dailycolorscheme.com/archive/2006/09/19
could I objectively (for some value of objective) tell which one is 'better'? The only metrics I found on the net so far seem to be rather ad-hoc measurements of how well the set of colors is 'analogic' or 'complementary'. Since I want to write a program to make the measurements, a more structured apporach would help me.

Do you have any pointers or ideas for this problem, HN? Thank you!

Re: Ask HN: Measuring the Aesthetic Quality of a Set of Colors?

#2

Post by Keelix »

First you need to understand the domain, then you can automate it:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Color_theory

Another challenge is what is it you want to achieve? Do you want people to say "ah, nice", or do you want them to "react" (click something for instance). Those two may be mutually exclusive in some instances, as generations of neon signage, "sales" banners and similar are living proof of.

Re: Ask HN: Measuring the Aesthetic Quality of a Set of Colors?

#4

Post by nopassrecover »

Unfortuantely aethetics are subjective - the best you can do is some machine-learning to recreate a "subjective" mind. As you've discovered, some combinations can be ruled out immediately on objective grounds, but deciding why one set of colours is "better" than another when they have similar properties is something that is not objectively understood. Even more difficult, the context in which you use the colours affects their "aesthetic quality".

Re: Ask HN: Measuring the Aesthetic Quality of a Set of Colors?

#5

Post by clord »

There is an existence proof "for some value of objective": Your and my own subjective tastes are also an objective determinant. With enough data from people, one might find some function over the domain of colour that yields pleasing combinations.

I'd suggest you put your candidates up on http://www.colourlovers.com/ and have them vote.

Re: Ask HN: Measuring the Aesthetic Quality of a Set of Colors?

#8

Post by diiq »

This is going to be a little more technical than I'd like, but it should be concrete enough to implement on a computer.

So, start with the color sphere: a unit sphere, and each point in the volume represents a color. Around the equater is arranged the hues, roygbiv. Moving north or south changes value, by adding white or black, respectively. Moving inwards toward the north-south axis reduces saturation; the exact center of the sphere is a perfectly neutral 50% gray.

Traditionally a set of colors is supposed to be 'harmonious' together if, when one constructs a polyhedron inside the color sphere, with each vertex being one of the chosen colors, the polytope formed has it's center of balance at the center of the sphere.

That is a 'designer' set of colors --- emotionally flat but visually pleasing. Emotional content is added by moving the centroid off center, charging the whole color set with a color 'cast'.

This definition, of course, fails when monochromatic schemes are chosen, but monochromatic schemes are almost always highly emotional unless a suitable accent color is chosen (usually a complementary, so as to move the COB to the center of the sphere).

For more information, read Itten, Keely, Albers, &c.

Re: Ask HN: Measuring the Aesthetic Quality of a Set of Colors?

#9

Post by aristoxenus »

rriepe wrote: post #3

Make a site that "learns" by asking designers. Or just make a site that claims to, and then you have somewhere you can post your color schemes every time you need to test one.

You might be able to scrape color + ratings data from sites that offer downloadable themes / editor color schemes / etc. Or why not, a dataset of fine art paintings.

Re: Ask HN: Measuring the Aesthetic Quality of a Set of Colors?

#10

Post by hoopadoop »

diiq wrote: post #8

This is going to be a little more technical than I'd like, but it should be concrete enough to implement on a computer. So, start with the color sphere: a unit sphere, and each point in the volume represents a color. Around the equater is arranged the hues, roygbiv. Moving north or south changes value, by adding white or black, respectively. Moving inwards toward the north-south axis reduces saturation; the exact cen…

How can we know if this method of choosing colours results in colours 'aesthetically better' than, say, generating rgb values by flipping a coin?
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