A Color Notation Part 1

A Color Notation.

by Albert H. Munsell.

PREFACE.

At various times during the past ten years, the gist of these pages has been given in the form of lectures to students of the Normal Art School, the Art Teachers' a.s.sociation, and the Twentieth Century Club. In October of last year it was presented before the Society of Arts of the Ma.s.sachusetts Inst.i.tute of Technology, at the suggestion of Professor Charles R. Cross.

Grateful acknowledgment is due to many whose helpful criticism has aided in its development, notably Mr. Benjamin Ives Gilman, Secretary of the Museum of Fine Arts, Professor Harry E. Clifford, of the Inst.i.tute, and Mr. Myron T. Pritchard, master of the Everett School, Boston.

A. H. M.

CHESTNUT HILL, Ma.s.s., 1905.

PREFACE TO SECOND EDITION.

The new ill.u.s.trations in this edition are facsimiles of children's studies with measured color, made under ordinary school-room conditions.

Notes and appendices are introduced to meet the questions most frequently asked, stress being laid on the unbalanced nature of colors usually given to beginners, and the mischief done by teaching that red, yellow, and blue are primary hues.

The need of a scientific basis for color values is also emphasized, believing this to be essential in the discipline of the color sense.

A. H. M.

CHESTNUT HILL, Ma.s.s., 1907.

INTRODUCTION.

The lack of definiteness which is at present so general in color nomenclature, is due in large measure to the failure to appreciate the fundamental characteristics on which color differences depend. For the physicist, the expression of the wave length of any particular light is in most cases sufficient, but in the great majority of instances where colors are referred to, something more than this and something easier of realization is essential.

The attempt to express color relations by using merely two dimensions, or two definite characteristics, can never lead to a successful system.

For this reason alone the system proposed by Mr. Munsell, with its three dimensions of hue, value, and chroma, is a decided step in advance over any previous proposition. By means of these three dimensions it is possible to completely express any particular color, and to differentiate it from colors ordinarily cla.s.sed as of the same general character.

The expression of the essential characteristics of a color is, however, not all that is necessary. There must be some accurate and not too complicated system for duplicating these characteristics, one which shall not alter with time or place, and which shall be susceptible of easy and accurate redetermination. From the teaching standpoint also a logical and sequential development is absolutely essential. This Mr.

Munsell seems to have most successfully accomplished.

In the determination of his relations.h.i.+ps he has made use of distinctly scientific methods, and there seems no reason why his suggestions should not lead to an exact and definite system of color essentials. The Munsell photometer, which is briefly referred to, is an instrument of wide range, high precision, and great sensitiveness, and permits the valuations which are necessary in his system to be accurately made. We all appreciate the necessity for some improvement in our ideas of color, and the natural inference is that the training should be begun in early youth. The present system in its modified form possesses elements of simplicity and attractiveness which should appeal to children, and give them almost unconsciously a power of discrimination which would prove of immense value in later life. The possibilities in this system are very great, and it has been a privilege to be allowed during the past few years to keep in touch with its development. I cannot but feel that we have here not only a rational color nomenclature, but also a system of scientific importance and of practical value.

H. E. CLIFFORD.

Ma.s.sACHUSETTS INSt.i.tUTE OF TECHNOLOGY, February, 1905.

CHAPTER I.

COLOR NAMES.

Writing from Samoa to Sidney Colvin in London, Stevenson[1] says: "Perhaps in the same way it might amuse you to send us any pattern of wall paper that might strike you as cheap, pretty, and suitable for a room in a hot and extremely bright climate. It should be borne in mind that our climate can be extremely dark, too. Our sitting-room is to be in varnished wood. The room I have particularly in mind is a sort of bed and sitting room, pretty large, lit on three sides, and the colour in favour of its proprietor at present is a topazy yellow. But then with what colour to relieve it? For a little work-room of my own at the back I should rather like to see some patterns of unglossy--well, I'll be hanged if I can describe this red. It's not Turkish, and it's not Roman, and it's not Indian; but it seems to partake of the last two, and yet it can't be either of them, because it ought to be able to go with vermilion. Ah, what a tangled web we weave! Anyway, with what brains you have left choose me and send me some--many--patterns of the exact shade."

[Footnote 1: Vailima Letters, Oct. 8, 1902.]

(1) Where could be found a more delightful cry for some rational way to describe color? He wants "a topazy yellow" and a red that is not Turkish nor Roman nor Indian, but that "seems to partake of the last two, and yet it can't be either of them." As a cap to the climax comes his demand for "patterns of the exact shade." Thus one of the clearest and most forceful writers of English finds himself unable to describe the color he wants. And why? Simply because popular language does not clearly state a single one of the three qualities united in every color, and which must be known before one may even hope to convey his color conceptions to another.

(2) The incongruous and bizarre nature of our present color names must appear to any thoughtful person. Baby blue, peac.o.c.k blue, Nile green, apple green, lemon yellow, straw yellow, rose pink, heliotrope, royal purple, Magenta, Solferino, plum, and automobile are popular terms, conveying different ideas to different persons and utterly failing to define colors. The terms used for a single hue, such as pea green, sea green, olive green, gra.s.s green, sage green, evergreen, invisible green, are not to be trusted in ordering a piece of cloth. They invite mistakes and disappointment. Not only are they inaccurate: they are inappropriate. Can we imagine musical tones called lark, canary, c.o.c.katoo, crow, cat, dog, or mouse, because they bear some distant resemblance to the cries of those animals? See paragraph 131.

+Color needs a system.+

(3) Music is equipped with a system by which it defines each sound in terms of its pitch, intensify, and duration, without dragging in loose allusions to the endlessly varying sounds of nature. So should color be supplied with an appropriate system, based on the hue, value, and chroma[2] of our sensations, and not attempting to describe them by the indefinite and varying colors of natural objects. The system now to be considered portrays the three dimensions of color, and measures each by an appropriate scale. It does not rest upon the whim of an individual, but upon physical measurements made possible by special color apparatus.

The results may be tested by any one who comes to the problem with "a clear mind, a good eye, and a fair supply of patience."

[Footnote 2: See color variables in Glossary.]

+Clear mental images make clear speech. Vague thoughts find vague utterance.+

(4) The child gathers flowers, h.o.a.rds colored beads, chases b.u.t.terflies, and begs for the gaudiest painted toys. At first his strong color sensations are sufficiently described by the simple terms of red, yellow, green, blue, and purple. But he soon sees that some are light, while others are dark, and later comes to perceive that each hue has many grayer degrees. Now, if he wants to describe a particular red,--such as that of his faded cap,--he is not content to merely call it red, since he is aware of other red objects which are very unlike it.

So he gropes for means to define this particular red; and, having no standard of comparison,--no scale by which to estimate,--he hesitatingly says it is a "sort of dull red."

(5) Thus early is he cramped by the poverty of color language. He has never been given an appropriate word for this color quality, and has to borrow one signifying the opposite of sharp, which belongs to edge tools rather than to colors.

+Most color terms are borrowed from other senses.+

(6) When his older sister refers to the "tone" of her green dress, or speaks of the "key of color" in a picture, he is naturally confused, because tone and key are terms a.s.sociated in his mind with music. It may not be long before he will hear that "a color note has been pitched too high," or that a certain artist "paints in a minor key." All these terms lead to mixed and indefinite ideas, and leave him unequipped for the clear expression of color qualities.

(7) Musical art is not so handicapped. It has an established scale with measured intervals and definite terms. Likewise, coloristic art must establish a scale, measure its intervals, and name its qualities in unmistakable fas.h.i.+on.

+Color has three dimensions.+

(8) It may sound strange to say that color has three dimensions, but it is easily proved by the fact that each of them can be measured. Thus in the case of the boy's faded cap its redness or HUE[3] is determined by one instrument; the amount of light in the red, which is its VALUE,[3]

is found by another instrument; while still a third instrument determines the purity or CHROMA[3] of the red.

The omission of any one of these three qualities leaves us in doubt as to the character of a color, just as truly as the character of this studio would remain undefined if the length were omitted and we described it as 22 feet wide by 14 feet high. The imagination would be free to ascribe any length it chose, from 25 to 100 feet. This length might be differently conceived by every individual who tried to supply the missing factor.

(9) To ill.u.s.trate the tri-dimensional nature of colors. Suppose we peel an orange and divide it in five parts, leaving the sections slightly connected below (Fig. 4). Then let us say that all the reds we have ever seen are gathered in one of the sections, all yellows in another, all greens in the third, blues in the fourth, and purples in the fifth. Next we will a.s.sort these HUES in each section so that the lightest are near the top, and grade regularly to the darkest near the bottom. A white wafer connects all the sections at the top, and a black wafer may be added beneath. See Plate I.