Hue
The attribute of color that distinguishes red from blue, green from yellow - expressed as an angle (0-360 degrees) on the color wheel representing the dominant wavelength.
Hue is one of the three color attributes (hue, saturation, lightness), defining "what color" something is. It is represented as an angular position on the color wheel, measured in degrees from 0 to 360, where 0 degrees corresponds to red, 120 degrees to green, and 240 degrees to blue. Adjacent hues on the wheel are analogous colors, while those diametrically opposite are complementary.
- Color wheel and harmony theory: Complementary hues (180 degrees apart) create visual tension. Analogous hues produce harmonious, cohesive palettes. Triadic (120-degree intervals) and split-complementary schemes are also derived from color wheel geometry
- HSL/HSV hue manipulation: In CSS, the
hsl()function takes hue as its first argument:hsl(0, 100%, 50%)is pure red,hsl(120, 100%, 50%)is pure green. Thefilter: hue-rotate()property shifts all hues in an image by a specified angle - Perceptual considerations: The perceptual "size" of hue steps varies around the wheel, which is why perceptually uniform color spaces like CIELAB use a different angular mapping
In photo editing, selective hue shifting changes specific colors without affecting others. Photoshop's Hue/Saturation adjustment and Lightroom's HSL panel allow targeting narrow hue ranges for rotation. In web development, CSS custom properties combined with hsl() enable theme systems where changing a single hue variable updates an entire brand palette consistently.