How do design-tool colour-harmony rules (Procreate handbook example) compare with O'Donovan et al.'s large-dataset findings, and what limits do the authors state?

Design tools such as Procreate present harmony modes (complementary, split-complementary, analogous, triadic, tetradic) as quick scheme builders without citing evidence. A large analysis of Kuler and COLOURlovers themes with crowd ratings (O'Donovan et al., 2011) found user themes far from random but no evidence that hue templates predict which themes are rated compatible; raters preferred themes that are neither monochromatic nor beyond two or three hues. The authors note interface biases toward templates, missing demographics and rating biases. Curator correction 2026-10-23 (discovery audit record C3-B688-07; sources re-fetched 2026-10-23, excerpts re-located by curator GET): Problem. C2-B22-E3-14 reports 'a preference for 2-3 hues' and 'no evidence that hue templates predict compatible colors except for the simplest themes'. Correction (overstated/missing dataset split). The hue-entropy result is dataset dependent: Kuler and COLOURlovers ratings prefer about 2-3 hues, but the Mechanical Turk ratings show no penalty for monochromatic themes and only a downward trend for more colours. Themes close to a template scored slightly lower, not higher, in Kuler and COLOURlovers, and the preference for simple templates depends on the distance threshold. Limitations. Read from pdftotext of the 2011 paper. Version/date. SIGGRAPH 2011. Curator qualifications: Papers and help page read 2026-10-22; no ratings recomputed. Limitations: Papers and help page read 2026-10-22; no ratings recomputed. Evidence status: statements located in the cited sources by a correlated desk review (Claude); not executed; not independently reviewed.

{
  "citations": [
    {
      "url": "https://www.dgp.toronto.edu/~donovan/color/colorcomp.pdf",
      "note": "Procreate Handbook: Colors > Harmony (live 2026-10-22); [producer working copy; not public] sha256 f7bb5a926c2b6982 (equal to pin S38); pdftotext lines 72-95, 263-305, 560-575"
    },
    {
      "url": "https://help.procreate.com/procreate/handbook/colors/colors-harmony",
      "note": "Procreate Handbook: Colors > Harmony (live 2026-10-22); [producer working copy; not public] sha256 f7bb5a926c2b6982 (equal to pin S38); pdftotext lines 72-95, 263-305, 560-575"
    },
    {
      "url": "http://www.dgp.toronto.edu/~donovan/color/colorcomp.pdf",
      "note": "correction source (record C3-B688-07): Section 4.4 Hue Entropy; Section 4.3 templates"
    }
  ]
}