Systems by George Hernandez

There are various color systems that define colors. See also Maroon.

Common Color Systems
Munsell Color System
Ostwald Color System
CIE System

Common Color Systems

Here are the most common color systems:

HSV (Hue, Saturation, and Value). Sometimes variations include HSB (Brightness), HSL (Lightness/Luminosity), and HLS.
- The Hue of a color places it on the color wheel where the color spectrum (rainbow) is evenly spaced.
- The Saturation or chroma of a hue defines its intensity. Decreasing the saturation via a contrast control adds gray.
- The Value of a hue defines how bright or dark a color is.
RGB (Red, Green, and Blue) often used in computers and monitors.
CMYK (Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, and Black) often used in printers. Not that the hue range of CMYK is smaller than the range for RGB.
Pantone assigns names to particular colors. Pantone is a registered name.

For most computer applications, numeric values are often given different units of measure for the generic color systems (i.e. non-proprietary like Munsell, Ostwald, or Pantone).

0 to 100 in percentage
0 to 255 in decimal numbers
00 to FF in hexadecimal numbers
0 to F in hexadecimal numbers. EG: In CSS #FFF; is equivalent to #FFFFFF;.
0 to 360 in degrees of a color wheel (where red is 0 degrees).

Munsell Color System

The Munsell color system is a particular implementation of HSV.

The Munsell color system was devised by American A. H. Munsell in 1905 and revised in 1943.
The Munsell color system remains popular in many industries and is standardized by many standards organizations. EG: Z138.2 ANSI (American National Standards Institute), JIS Z 872, and DIN 6164.
The Munsell color system is cylindrical coordinate system: A color wheel plus a 2D grid around the core. The 3D shape is irregular.
The Munsell notation to specify the coordinates is H V/C (Hue Value/Chroma).
- Hues are specified using have 3 different notations:
  - 0-100 starting at red.
  - number (usu. 2.5, 5, 7.5, 10) and "principal hue" (R, YR, Y, GY, G, BG, B, PB, P, RP). EG: 5R.
  - N indicates no hue. EG: pure white.
- Values have a numeric notation from 0 (black) at the south pole to 10 (white) at the north pole of the 3D Munsell shape.
- Chroma (Saturation) has an arbitrary numeric notation 0-30+ for distance from the core of the 3D Munsell shape. Only fluorescent colors get as high as 30.
- Examples of Munsell notation:
  - 5R 6/14. A vivid red.
  - 5.1R 6.2/14.5. A more precise color of vivid red.
  - N 1/. Pure black. The Chroma is 0, but it is traditionally omitted.

Ostwald Color System

The Ostwald color system is a particular implementation of HSL.

The Ostwald color system was devised by Latvian-German scientist Wilhelm Ostwald (1853-1932) in 1914, published as Die Farbenfibel (The Colour Primer) in Leipzig in 1916, and refined with Die Harmonie der Farben (The Harmony of Colours) in 1918.
The Ostwald color system has fallen out of favor, primarily because its coordinates are too coarse. It is much more symmetrical than the Munsell color system.
The Ostwald color system is a cylindrical coordinate system: A color wheel plus a 2D grid with set at 45 degrees to the core. The 3D shape is a double cone.
The Ostwald notation to specify the coordinates is Hhw. (Hue Hue% White%).
- Dominant Wavelength (Hue) has 24 hues in the color wheel. The 8 groups are yellow (1,2,3), orange, red, purple, blue, turquoise, seagreen and leafgreen.
- Each triangular grid along the Ostwald color wheel has a 2D grid where each square is a mix of hwb (Hue% White% Black%). hwb has to add up to 100% so only 2 of the 3 need to be known. Thus instead of specifying Hhwb, only Hhw (i.e. HSL) is necessary.
  - Purity (Saturation) is defined by the H% of the HWB.
  - Luminance (Brightness) is defined by the W% and the B% of the HWB.
- The core of the 3D shape is void of hue and has a shorthand notation of a (white) at the north pole, b-o (grades of gray) in the middle, and p (black) at the south pole.
- In this illustration, shorthand is used to denote some of the White% and the Black% notation.
- Examples of Ostwald notation:
  - 8pa. A vivid red.
  - 8.1 3% 10%. A more precise color of vivid red.
  - 0a. Pure white. Actually for some goofy reason a is actually wb=89.0% 11.0%.
  - 0p. Pure black. Actually for some goofy reason p is actually wb=03.5% 96.5%.
The outer equator of the Ostwald 3D shape is the pure colors, the north pole is white, and the south pole is black.

CIE System

The CIE System (Commission Internationale d'Eclairage or International Commission on Illumination), is the international standard for colors.
The CIE system for colors

2007-10-21 14:46:25Z