Color Wheel Labeled – Primary, Secondary and Tertiary Colors

All 12 colors on the diagram

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Primary colors 3

Red Red is one of the three primary colors. It sits straight across the wheel from green.
Yellow Yellow is one of the three primary colors. It is at the top of this wheel, straight across from violet.
Blue Blue is one of the three primary colors. It sits straight across the wheel from orange.

Secondary colors 3

Orange A secondary color: red mixed with yellow. It sits halfway between them.
Green A secondary color: yellow mixed with blue. It sits halfway between them.
Violet A secondary color: blue mixed with red. It is also called purple.

Tertiary colors 6

Red-orange A tertiary color: red mixed with orange. It sits between the two.
Yellow-orange A tertiary color: yellow mixed with orange. It sits between the two.
Yellow-green A tertiary color: yellow mixed with green. It sits between the two.
Blue-green A tertiary color: blue mixed with green. It sits between the two.
Blue-violet A tertiary color: blue mixed with violet. It sits between the two.
Red-violet A tertiary color: red mixed with violet. It sits between the two.

How this list was compiled: Every name, kind and mix was read on 2026-10-03 in at least two of these. (1) Bonnie E. Snow and Hugo B. Froehlich, The Theory and Practice of Color, 1918, a school text in the public domain, https://archive.org/details/theorypracticeof00snow (the three primary colors yellow, red and blue, which cannot be produced by mixture; the three binary colors orange, green and violet and the two primaries that mix each; the hues yellow-orange, red-orange, red-violet, blue-violet, blue-green and yellow-green, each a primary mixed with the binary beside it and named from the primary; each color's complement at the opposite end of the same diameter; with yellow at the top, the warm colors on the left and the cool colors on the right). (2) A United States government guide to color basics for web pages, read in the Internet Archive copy, https://web.archive.org/web/2023/https://www.usability.gov/how-to-and-tools/methods/color-basics.html (many color wheels show 12 colors: three primary colors red, yellow and blue; three secondary colors orange, green and violet; six tertiary colors red-orange, yellow-orange, yellow-green, blue-green, blue-violet and red-violet, made by mixing a primary and a secondary; warm and cool colors). (3) University of Florida, IFAS Extension, Color in the Landscape, https://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/publication/EP425 (the 12 basic colors of the color wheel: three primary, three secondary as a mix of two primaries, six tertiary as a primary mixed with a secondary next to it, such as red-orange; complementary colors are opposite each other: violet and yellow, red and green, blue and orange; warm and cool colors). (4) Wikipedia, English edition: Color wheel, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Color_wheel (three primary colors, three secondary colors and six intermediates known as tertiary colors, 12 main divisions); Secondary color, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secondary_color (the red, yellow and blue model with secondary colors green, purple and orange; the two meanings of tertiary color; intermediate color; red-purple and blue-purple); Color theory, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Color_theory (warm and cool colors). The second and fourth share some wording and are counted as one. Hints, detail lines and the hex values are our own. Licence: own work

The drawing: Drawn for this site by script from the table of twelve colors, 2026-10-03. Own work. Licence: own work

How it works

This is a color wheel labeled primary secondary tertiary: three primary colors, three secondary colors and six tertiary colors, on the red, yellow and blue wheel that art classes teach.

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Primary and secondary colors

Numbers 1 to 3 are the primary colors: red, yellow and blue. Numbers 4 to 6 are the secondary colors. Each sits halfway between the two primaries that mix it: orange between red and yellow, green between yellow and blue, violet between blue and red.

Tertiary colors

Numbers 7 to 12 are the tertiary colors. Each sits between a primary and a secondary and is named for both, primary first: red-orange, yellow-orange, yellow-green, blue-green, blue-violet and red-violet. The colors on a screen are close to paint colors, not exact.

Questions and answers

What are the 12 colors on the color wheel?

Three primary colors (red, yellow and blue), three secondary colors (orange, green and violet) and six tertiary colors: red-orange, yellow-orange, yellow-green, blue-green, blue-violet and red-violet.

What are tertiary colors?

The six colors made by mixing a primary color with the secondary color next to it: red-orange, yellow-orange, yellow-green, blue-green, blue-violet and red-violet. Each sits between its two parent colors on the wheel.

What are complementary colors?

Colors that sit straight across the wheel from each other: red and green, yellow and violet, blue and orange. Every tertiary color has one too, such as red-orange and blue-green.

Which colors are warm and which are cool?

Red, orange and yellow, with the colors between them, are called warm. Green, blue and violet are called cool. With yellow at the top, the warm colors run down the left side of this wheel and the cool colors down the right.