In this article, we investigate how context influences color preferences by comparing preferences for contextless colored squares with preferences for colors of a variety of objects (e.g., walls, couches, and T-shirts). In experiment 1, we find that hue preferences for contextless squares generalize relatively well to hue preferences for imagined objects, with the substantial differences being in the saturation and lightness dimensions. In experiments 2 and 3, we find that object color preferences are relatively invariant when the objects are (a) imagined to be the color that is presented as a small square, (b) depicted as colored images of objects, and (c) viewed as actual physical objects. In experiment 4, we investigate the possibility that object color preferences are related to the degree to which colors help objects fulfill particular functions or outcomes. We also discuss relations between our results and previous theories of color preference. (c) 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Col Res Appl, 38, 393-411, 2013