Photo-Trichromatic Printing. Part II. Triads.

Photo-Trichromatic Printing
C. G. Zander
Published by Raithby, Lawrence & Co., Ld., Leicester
1896The combination of three colours to give an effect which shall be pleasing to the eye is more difficult to manage. Rood recommends at a distance of 120°, or about 20 minutes on our chromatic clockdial, between the three colours. This distance need not be strictly maintained, as will be seen from the following combinations given by Rood:
— Spectral red, yellow, blue.
Purple red, yellow, cyan-blue.
Orange, green, violet.
Orange, green, purple-violet.
Carmine, yellow, green.
Orange-yellow, violet, bluish green.
Scarlet, green, violet-blue. And others.

The combination of triads will always look better if two of the three colours are warm ones and the third cold. One of the warm colours may be a broken one. A warm, pure colour combined with a warm and a cold tint will form a good combination, or two tints with either a pure hue or a saddened colour.

Compared with continental cities, very poor taste is displayed in the colour combinations of the decorations used on festive occasions in this country. Hardly anything but the crude red, yellow, and blue is to be seen. The same may be said of theatrical and other posters displayed more liberally every day on the hoardings. I have seen some posters, printed in America, which showed excellent taste in their combinations of tints and broken colours of various gradations. I trust the few hints given here, which only touch upon the fringe of the subject of colour combinations, may be of assistance to British artists. Letterpress printers seem of late years to display more taste than formerly in their colour combinations in conjunction with some exquisite designs in type and ornamentation. There is, however, plenty more room for improvement in the display of artistic taste, and the scientific theory of colour combinations is well worth a serious study.