Monday Minute: Color is Relative. Learn how these color effects make simple colors appear like optical illusions.

Bezold effect

Here are red horizontal lines, with white in between on the left, and black on the right. The red with white lines appears lighter, while the red with black lines appear darker, even though the red lines are the same color.

Reversed Ground

Here are two X’s on two different colored backgrounds. It appears that the background of the left half is the same color as the X on the right. But connect the line, and you’ll see that the X’s are the same color.

Subtraction of Color

In this image, focus your eyes where the white and green meet. The two brown squares in the center look quite similar, right? Here’s two stripes of each color side by side. They’re more different than you first thought.

This demonstrates how you can manipulate the perception of a color that is too bright or too dark with surrounding colors.

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