Color for Designers: Ninety-five things you need to know when choosing and using colors for layouts and illustrations

Chapter 2. Value Over All

9 No Value, No Color

Some designers and artists operate under the assumption that hue, saturation, and value are equally important when it comes to creating colored images or layouts. These people are mistaken.

Value must be thought of as more critical than either hue or saturation. Why? Because hues cannot even exist without value. And levels of saturation cannot be applied without hues. Both hue and saturation, therefore, need value in order to occur. Period.

Value, on the other hand, needs neither hue nor saturation. Want an example of this? Look no further than a black-and-white photograph. Black-and-white photos are nothing but an arrangement of values. Hue and saturation never enter the picture (so to speak). ...