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Gluons are the gauge boson that act to bind quarks into hadron particles such as the familiar proton and neutron, which are baryons (composed of 3 quarks). The gluon is the force mediating particle for the strong nuclear interaction and is described by a theory called quantum chromodynamics.
Gluons bind quarks into protons and neutrons. Gluons also act to bind atomic nuclei. They are vector bosons, which means they have a spin of 1.
There is 1 photon, 3 weak bosons (W-, W+ and Z), however, there are 8 kinds of gluons. In quantum chromodynamics, quarks carry the SU (3) color charge. The 8 kinds of gluons has to do with the 3 kinds of color charge that quarks can carry. Antiquarks also carry an anticolor charge. A gluon carriers both color and anticolor charge. Thus, there are 9 possible combinations of color and anticolor charge for gluons. So why are their only 8 kinds of gluons? This is known as the color octet. Hadrons, or composite particles have to be strong force or color neutral. Thus, each combination of color charge must end up neutral. Red, blue and green together, becomes neutral. However, for example a red and antired pair would not interact with anything. They would be white and no transfer and color.
The term "color charge" is completely unrelated to the visual perception of color. It is a loose analogy and Richard Feynman referred to those who decided it as "idiot physicists".
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