Colors have always been around us, shaping the world we see. But with screens taking over our society, every imaginable color is just a click away. The digital age makes it easy to look up colorful images online and learn endless information about various colors.
While exploring the digital world has many benefits, it might affect you more than you think. So, how does seeing colors on a screen shape the way you see and use them?
Do Digital Devices Affect Color Perception?
While looking at a photo on a screen versus a printed image might feel the same to us, images in the digital world are presented very differently. Devices emit light to show us visuals, so the colors on our screen are created through light rather than pigments. Our screens use mixtures of red, green, and blue light to create the various colors we see. So, there are slight limitations to the colors that can appear on your screen, and the type of device and its settings could also play a role in how these colors appear.
Digital devices could also impact the way we use colors. Technology makes it easy to create colorful content online, and we may use colors strategically for the online world, sometimes without even realizing it. In a world where social media posts, interesting articles, and flashy advertisements are everywhere, color plays a huge role.
Overall, there aren’t drastic differences between how we see and use color in the digital and real worlds. However, there are enough differences to notice when comparing digital displays and physical objects. These include variations in how colors appear on screens versus in reality and the unique ways we use colors based on what we see online.
The Digital World’s Influence on How We See and Use Colors
Digital devices alter how we perceive colors in many ways. How colors appear on screens is unique and may change our perception of them. The way information is presented also affects how we observe and interpret colors.
The digital world is such a significant part of our lives today that it’s no surprise it impacts our color perception more than we realize. Here are some of the ways technology influences our daily lives.
How Display Types Shape Color Perception
Our digital color perception could depend on the exact devices we use. One color may not appear exactly the same on every screen. There are several different screen display types, such as LCD, LED, and OLED. Each type of screen display has a different method for showing colors, so there are slight variations in how these colors appear.
For example, LCD screens are commonly used on laptops and desktops. They offer consistent brightness levels but lack the deep contrast of other technologies. LED screens are a type of LCD screen typically used in laptops, desktops, and some phones that tend to have better and brighter colors than older LCDs. OLED screens have even sharper color contrast and can achieve true blacks because they allow each pixel to emit its own light and are able to turn off individual pixels.
If you pull up the same image on your phone and computer, you might notice slight differences in color if you hold them up next to each other. However, the differences in color are so small that we don’t think about it when only looking at one screen. Even so, an image on your device could have slightly different colors than someone using a different device, altering your color perception slightly.
Screen Settings and Their Influence on Colors
In addition to the type of screen, the screen settings on your device could also alter how the color appears. Adjusting the brightness, color balance, contrast, and color temperature on your display can make colors appear differently than they would on other devices. Making these adjustments can be easier on your eyes or make your screen look better to you, but it could make images look different than the objects would appear in real life.
The Role of Blue Light in Color Perception
When we view colors on a screen, our eyes are impacted by blue light emissions, which doesn’t occur when we view colors in the real world. Blue light emissions can strain our eyes, potentially affecting how we view colors. While some blue light is unlikely to harm your eyes, constant blue light exposure could cause vision problems and make it harder for people to see the world around them, including colors. Some people also blink less when staring at devices, which could blur their vision due to dry eyes.
To avoid the negative effects of blue light from devices, some people wear blue light glasses to protect their eyes. While these provide many benefits to people who use devices frequently, they can adjust color vision slightly. While wearing those glasses, colors may appear more yellowish due to the glasses filtering blue light. The changes are minimal, but they make a small difference in how colors appear.
Why Digital Displays Alter Color Accuracy
Colors on screens are close to real-life items, but they’re rarely identical. An image of a product may appear slightly different on a screen than in real life or printed on paper. That’s because colors shown on monitors use a unique color mixing method called additive color mixing. As mentioned before, our screens use a mix of red, green, and blue to color the pixels. This method doesn’t directly translate to the color mixing for other scenarios, such as printing and painting.
However, this difference in color display only results in slight variations. If you have a high-quality monitor that’s regularly calibrated, the colors will be as close as possible to real-life objects. But without proper updates, calibration, and settings, your screen may become less accurate in displaying true colors.
Digital Challenges With Reproducing Certain Colors
Since digital devices use light to show colors, there are some limitations. In the RGB color model, there aren’t any colors that can combine to create hues like brown and gray. So, if brown light doesn’t exist, why can we see it on our screens? Colors that don’t normally exist in light can appear on screens by using different versions of other colors, such as dark orange for brown. If you go into a completely dark room and look at a brown screen through an opening in your fist, it’ll likely appear more orange than brown.
At first glance, colors like brown might look normal on your screen, but if you look at them too closely, you’ll see the way colors and context are working together to trick our minds. We can see every color on our screens, but some are more complicated to display than others, which can make it trickier to have them mimic real-world colors.
Advancements in Delivering Precise Colors Digitally
It’s easy for people to assume technology is harming us, but there are many positive aspects to colors in the digital world. Digital devices make it efficient for us to pinpoint exact colors in images. Every color is linked to a specific hex code, making it easy to use very specific colors in digital art. It’s much more precise than mixing paints together or trying to guess the exact color of an object in your home.
Digital devices have every color imaginable right at your fingertips. Plus, with so much information about colors out there, technology makes it easier than ever to learn about the meanings and history of many different colors.
Technology Enhancing Color Vision Accessibility
The digital world also makes identifying colors more accessible for people, especially those with color vision deficiencies or other visual impairments. Certain apps can tell you the color of an object through your screen, allowing people to determine colors even if they can’t see them for themselves. Digital devices make it easier than ever to label colors and interpret them.
How Colors Grab Attention Online
The web is all about scrolling through content and looking at things that catch our attention. So, people may use colors differently online than they would in other contexts. Bright colors and eye-catching patterns are important for social media, online advertisements, and websites. If there are any trending colors in the digital world, that’s also an important consideration. Since it’s easy to use specific hex codes online, it makes it simpler for companies and social media accounts to use consistent colors in their branding and advertising.
Using colors strategically on digital devices has become the norm because choosing the perfect colors is a powerful way to succeed online.
Is the Digital World Helping or Hurting Our Color Perception?
It’s clear that the digital world influences color perception in many ways, but that doesn’t automatically mean it’s good or bad. While screen colors can sometimes strain our eyes and appear slightly different from those in the natural world, technology has also made it easier to identify and learn about the many hues around us. It has allowed us to use color in innovative ways online to attract new audiences and improve their overall experience.
Overall, technology brings a unique perspective to our colorful world. Even though it can change how we use and see colors in small ways, it ultimately makes life more colorful. Hopefully, technology will continue to shape the future of color in remarkable ways and enhance our digital experiences.
