Colors can be compared based on their relationship or proximity on a color wheel. When color combinations are chosen due to their locations on the color wheel, a color scheme has been used.

Hues that lie opposite one another are called complementary colors. The reason they are considered complementary is because they enhance each other's attributes, when used in a design together in fairly close relationships. Two complementary colors used next to each other in a design will usually intensify each other's visual effect.

Another attribute of complimentary colors is that when they are mixed together, they tend to cancel each other out or to neutralize one another. The theoretical result of combining two pure complementary colors is a neutral gray. Mixing even a small amount of a color's complement will lower its intensity while retaining the character of the initial color.

A split complementary color scheme consists of a color on the wheel, combined with the two colors on either side of its complement. In a double complementary color scheme, two hues next to one another on the color wheel are used in combination with their complementary colors. These combinations of 3 and 4 colors across from each other on the wheel can soften the contrast between complements, while extending the palette to include variety.

The triadic color scheme uses three colors that are located equidistance from each other on the wheel, such as red, yellow, and blue. Typically a colorful effect is created.

In an analogous color scheme, two or more hues that lie next to one another on the color wheel are combined. If the color wheel used to select analogous colors has many variations of color, the result can be a combination of similar colors that seem to be in harmony with one another, or to blend together. In color wheels with few colors, such as a 6-color wheel, even colors next to one another can appear very different, providing more contrast.

A single hue is used to create a monochromatic color scheme, which can include shades, tints, and tones of the hue, or neutral colors such as black, white, or gray. Using additional variations in value and adding neutral colors helps to create the illusion of additional colors. Monochromatic color schemes can provide a moody or mysterious quality to a design.

An achromatic color scheme isn't really a "color" scheme, since it includes no hues, only variations of grays, black, and/or white.

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