Why Light Blue Isn't Actually Light Blue

What color do you think this is?

If you answered light blue, you're wrong.

This color has a completely different hue than blue. It should be considered its own color.

What does having a different hue mean though?

Colors can be measured with 3 different values put together:

• Hue
• Saturation
• Lightness

A combination of these three values can create almost every color the human eye can see.

Colors with different hues look different. Drag the slider to see how the color changes based on the hue value:

Hue Value:

Blue has a hue value of 240.

"Light blue" has a hue value of around 200.

But this "light blue" is made by decreasing the hue value of blue, which isn't making the color lighter.

Shouldn't you make a color lighter by adding white?

Try making pure blue lighter by dragging the slider for the lightness value up to around 80. This will add white and should make the real light blue.

Lightness Value: 50

This looks a lot different than the color above (), doesn't it?

But what about pink?

I've heard that some people think pink is light red.

Try dragging the slider again to around 80 to see what real light red is...

Lightness Value: 50

Compare this to pure pink:

Now you can do your part and call colors by their correct names. =)