Harmonious color pairings: Insights from human preference and natural hue statistics

While color harmony has long been studied in art and design, consensus remains elusive, as most models rely on qualitative insights or limited datasets. We present a quantitative, data-driven study of color pairing preferences using controlled hue-based palettes in HSL. Participants evaluated combinations of thirteen hues, enabling us to construct a preference matrix and define a combinability index for each color. Preferences are highly hue dependent, thereby challenging classical color harmony theories. Yet, when averaged over hues, statistically meaningful patterns of aesthetic preference emerge, with certain hue separations perceived as more harmonious. Strikingly, these patterns align with hue distributions in natural landscapes, suggesting a statistical correspondence between human color preferences and the color structure in nature. Finally, principal-component analysis of the score matrix reveals two complementary hue groups underlying the global structure of color-pairing preferences. Together, these findings offer a quantitative framework for studying color harmony and potential perceptual and ecological underpinnings.