A triadic scheme uses three hues evenly spaced around the wheel, like the points of an equilateral triangle. The three primaries (red, yellow, blue) form a triad; so do the three secondaries (orange, green, violet).
A split-complementary scheme uses one hue plus the two hues on either side of its complement. It keeps much of the punch of complements with a little less clash.
Key idea
Triad: three hues four steps apart on the 12-hue wheel. Split-complementary: a hue plus the two neighbors of its complement.
Why it works
Even spacing gives a triad strong variety (three quite different hues) with a sense of order. Piet Mondrian's Composition with Red, Blue and Yellow (1930) uses the primary triad with white, black and gray.
Worked example: Find a split-complementary scheme
What is the split-complementary scheme for yellow?
- Yellow's complement is violet.
- The neighbors of violet are blue-violet and red-violet.
- Use yellow with those two.
Answer: Yellow, blue-violet and red-violet.
Common mistake
Picking any three colors and calling it a triad. Count the steps: on the 12-hue wheel each hue in a triad is four steps from the next (4 + 4 + 4 = 12). Red, orange and blue are not a triad: red to orange is only two steps.
| Triad | Hues |
|---|---|
| Primary | red, yellow, blue |
| Secondary | orange, green, violet |
| Tertiary | red-orange, yellow-green, blue-violet |
| Tertiary | yellow-orange, blue-green, red-violet |