Cool palette

Blue through violet or green hues occupy the image, making cool color temperature legible.

Visual traits

• Blue-dominant hues
• Green or violet supporting hues
• Cool color temperature

Expected changes

• Blue-family hues are more likely to increase
• Warm hues are less likely to dominate

Definition

A cool palette uses blues, blue-greens, greens, or violets as its main range to make image color temperature appear cool. It does not include low value, night, winter, a particular emotion, or a lighting cause.

In more detail

Cool hues may be light or dark and can combine with neutrals or small warm accents. This covers hue tendency only, apart from brightness and contrast. It is distinct from a warm-dominant palette and from grayscale without hue.

Includes

• A range mainly of blue
• green
• and violet
• A palette that appears cool in color temperature

Excludes

• A warm-dominant palette
• High-key or low-key based only on value
• A palette of only achromatic values

What this does not imply

• Night
• winter
• or water
• Low value or high contrast
• A particular emotion

Variability

Brightness, saturation, and the amount of warm accent can be adjusted separately.

Usage

• Use cool hues as the main color range

Distinguish similar expressions

• Specify value design or season separately

Typical uses

• Shift image color temperature cool
• Unify an image with a blue-family range

Possible failure modes

• Warm hues occupy the image
• Only achromatic values remain
• Only value design changes