To speak of tertiary colors is to refer to a classification that can have several uses, and is part of how colors are classified in general, which are primary, secondary and tertiary.
The so-called tertiary colors are basically those that are obtained by combine two other types of colors, one belonging to the primary colors and another to the secondary colors.
How do you make a tertiary color?
If you take the color yellow () and mix it with the color green (), the result is the color pistachio green (tertiary color).
What are tertiary colors?
Starting from the RYB (red, yellow, blue) of the traditional primary colors, which means red, yellow and blue, secondary colors are created such as orange, green and purple. With a primary color and a secondary color, the following tertiaries are obtained:
- Red + Orange = Oranged Red
- Yellow + Orange = Yellow orange
- Blue + Green = Greenish blue
- Red + Purple = Purplish red
- Yellow + Green = Greenish yellow
- Blue + Purple = Blue violet
However, there are many other shades depending on the added amount of one color or another, such as turquoise, lemon, etc.
Difference between tertiary and intermediate colors
Sometimes the intermediate colors seen in the , are indicated as tertiary colors, but in reality they are not the same, although it is valid to ask what is the main difference between the two?
The color that occurs between yellow and red is orange, which is in turn a secondary color, it is classified as intermediate because it is between the two, but it is not tertiary, since both are primary in this example.
Let us remember that for a tertiary color to be considered as such, the mixture actually occurs between a primary and a secondary color, or failing that, two secondary colors.