Depending on your eyes and monitor, the difference could be large or small, but it should be clear that the sine-based one is smoother. Its colors are relatively muted, but only relatively, and they look consistent. Compare 0° with 180° in each wheel, for example. To me, the HSV’s looks like rich, candy apple red v. pale, robin’s egg blue, while the sinebow’s is a much more balanced contrast of medium red v. medium turquoise. We lose the sharp, daffodil yellow at 60° and the deep, inky blue at 240° – but that’s exactly what we set out to do: they may be fine colors, but they aren’t team players. The sinebow gives us a set of colors that really do seem to vary only in hue and not in saturation or value.

A little color theory for you