is black a true color?

Question

im in a design class and i was wondering is BLACK is a hue?
or black a value?

Answer 1

Black is not on any color wheel. Therefore it is not a color (hue) as far as color theory goes. It is achromatic. You get black by shading a color and darkening the value. In practice, you add black paint to do that so in practice black is a color (an achromatic color). When painting you can just use straight black paint or you can add a bit of chroma (color) to it and it will technically not be black. It will be a shade of whatever color you added no matter how dark the value is.

Scientifically black is not a color. It absorbs all colors of the visible spectrum but reflects none.

Color theory is always a bit tricky because what things are in theory and in practice are two different things. In theory primary colors cannot be mixed from other colors. In practice they can be.

Answer 2

Hey Dance 2 Evan,

Strictly speaking, black is the absence of all color.

Answer 3

this questions always ends up as peoples opinions with black and white well i say if its in a crayola box it should be conciderd a color if you grew up asking your firend can they pass you the COLOR black of the COLOR white. they may not be on the color wheel or on its own little section but we wouldnt have many of the colors we have today without black and white :)

Answer 4

no, technically black is no color, the light holds all colors and for example a red chair absorbs all colors except red, so the eye sees red, when something is black all colors are absorbed, so black is no color.

Answer 5

Black is all colors since it absorbs color - white is an absence of color since it doesn't absorb any color

Answer 6

Black is a shade I believe, not a true colour.

Answer 7

I think black is an absence of colour

Answer 8

it is an absence of color

Answer 9

BOTH