*** From the Archives ***

This article is from February 13, 2012, and is no longer current.

Construct a Color Wheel in Photoshop

Excerpted from Photoshop for Designers: Color on lynda.com.


In this Photoshop tutorial, you’ll transform a simple circle filled with RGB into a complete color wheel that includes tints and shades of all twelve colors.

Begin this how-to by clicking the image below to download a Photoshop file that contains the simple shape:

Once you’ve opened the file (called “20120213_pie.psd”) in Photoshop, watch the video below. You can follow along as I duplicate and rotate the image. I’ll then use the Lighten blend mode the image to give the wheel 12 colors. Finally, I’ll apply a radial gradient overlay to change saturation and brightness. The end result will be a color wheel with tints and shades of the colors.

For more in the Photoshop for Designers series, visit Nigel French’s author page on lynda.com.
 

Nigel French is a graphic designer, photographer, and design teacher, based in Lewes, UK. He is author of InDesign Type (now in its 4th Edition), The Type Project Book (with Hugh D’Andrade) and the Photoshop Visual Quickstart Guide (with Mike Rankin) from Peachpit Press. He has recorded more than fifty titles in the LinkedIn Learning online training library.

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  • Terri Stone says:

    Please click on the following link to download the sample file again:
    /wp-content/uploads/sites/default/files/story_images/20120213_pie.psd .

    Now try the tutorial again and everything should be good.

    Terri Stone
    Editor in Chief, CreativePro.com

  • Charles4732 says:

    Where is the video below? I cannot locate it.

     

  • dblatner says:

    We were having a few problems with videos; sorry. Try clicking on the video at the end of the article again.

  • Monika says:

    Hi, I used this tutorial and it’s great, thank you so much for doing this, but what I’m wondering is, if you have a downloadable psd image for CMYK/Pantone (I also want a wheel with 16 colors) as well?

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