A Color Notation: A measured color system, based on the three qualities Hue, Value and Chroma — John Shaqi
A Color Notation: A measured color system, based on the three qualities Hue, Value and ChromaMunsell, A. H. (Albert Henry)
Science
A Color Notation: A measured color system, based on the three qualities Hue, Value and Chroma
Munsell, A. H. (Albert Henry)
Color
(17) This forms an inclined circuit, crossing the equator at opposite
points, and suggests the ecliptic or the rings of Saturn (see outside
cover). A pale rainbow would describe a slanting circuit nearer white,
and a dimmer one would fall within the sphere, while an intensely
brilliant spectrum projects far beyond the surface of the sphere, so
greatly is the chroma of its hues in excess of the common pigments with
which we work out our problems.
(18) At the outset it is well to recognize the place of the spectrum in
this system, not only because it is the established basis of scientific
study, but especially because the invariable order assumed by its hues
is the only stable hint which Nature affords us in her infinite color
play.
(19) All our color sensations are included in the color solid. None are
left out by its scales of hue, value, and chroma. Indeed, the
imagination is led to conceive and locate still purer colors than any we
now possess. Such increased degrees of color sensation can be named, and
clearly conveyed by symbols to another person as soon as the system is
comprehended.
APPENDIX TO CHAPTER I.
+Misnomers for Color.+
The Century Dictionary helps an intelligent study of color by its clear
definitions and cross-references to HUE, VALUE, and CHROMA,--leaving no
excuse for those who would confuse these three qualities or treat a
degree of any quality as the quality itself.
Obscure statements were frequent in text-books before these new
definitions appeared. Thus the term “shade” should be applied only to
darkened values, and not to hues or chromas. Yet one writer says, “This
yellow shades into green,” which is certainly a change of hue, and then
speaks of “a brighter shade” in spite of his evident intention to
suggest a stronger chroma, which is neither a shade nor brighter
luminosity.
Children gain wrong notions of “tint and shade” from the so-called
standard colors shown to them, which present “tints” of red and blue
much darker than the “shades” of yellow. This is bewildering, and, like
their elders, they soon drop into the loose habit of calling any degree
of color-strength or color-light a “shade.” _Value_ is a better term to
describe the light which color reflects to the eye, and all color
values, light or dark, are measured by the _value-scale_.
“Tone” is used in a confusing way to mean different things. Thus in the
same sentence we see it refers to a single touch of the brush,--which is
not a tone, but a paint spot,--and then we read that the “tone of the
canvas is golden.” This cannot mean that each paint spot is the color of
gold, but is intended to suggest that the various objects depicted seem
enveloped in a yellow atmosphere. Tone is, in fact, a musical term
appropriate to sound, but out of place in color. It seems better to call
the brush touch a _color-spot_: then the result of an harmonious
relation between all the spots is _color-envelope_, or, as in Rood, “the
chromatic composition.”
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