In
color theory
In the visual arts, color theory is the body of practical guidance for color mixing and the visual effects of a specific color combination. Color terminology based on the color wheel and its geometry separates colors into primary color, seconda ...
, hue is one of the main properties (called
color appearance parameters) of a
color
Color (American English) or colour (British English) is the visual perceptual property deriving from the spectrum of light interacting with the photoreceptor cells of the eyes. Color categories and physical specifications of color are associ ...
, defined technically in the
CIECAM02
In colorimetry, CIECAM02 is the color appearance model published in 2002 by the International Commission on Illumination (CIE) Technical Committee 8-01 (''Color Appearance Modelling for Color Management Systems'') and the successor of CIECAM97s. ...
model as "the degree to which a
stimulus
A stimulus is something that causes a physiological response. It may refer to:
*Stimulation
**Stimulus (physiology), something external that influences an activity
**Stimulus (psychology), a concept in behaviorism and perception
*Stimulus (economi ...
can be described as similar to or different from stimuli that are described as
red
Red is the color at the long wavelength end of the visible spectrum of light, next to orange and opposite violet. It has a dominant wavelength of approximately 625–740 nanometres. It is a primary color in the RGB color model and a secondar ...
,
orange
Orange most often refers to:
*Orange (fruit), the fruit of the tree species '' Citrus'' × ''sinensis''
** Orange blossom, its fragrant flower
*Orange (colour), from the color of an orange, occurs between red and yellow in the visible spectrum
* ...
,
yellow
Yellow is the color between green and orange on the spectrum of light. It is evoked by light with a dominant wavelength of roughly 575585 nm. It is a primary color in subtractive color systems, used in painting or color printing. In the R ...
,
green
Green is the color between cyan and yellow on the visible spectrum. It is evoked by light which has a dominant wavelength of roughly 495570 Nanometre, nm. In subtractive color systems, used in painting and color printing, it is created by ...
,
blue
Blue is one of the three primary colours in the RYB colour model (traditional colour theory), as well as in the RGB (additive) colour model. It lies between violet and cyan on the spectrum of visible light. The eye perceives blue when obs ...
,
violet
Violet may refer to:
Common meanings
* Violet (color), a spectral color with wavelengths shorter than blue
* One of a list of plants known as violet, particularly:
** ''Viola'' (plant), a genus of flowering plants
Places United States
* Viol ...
," within certain theories of
color vision
Color vision, a feature of visual perception, is an ability to perceive differences between light composed of different wavelengths (i.e., different spectral power distributions) independently of light intensity. Color perception is a part of ...
.
Hue can typically be represented quantitatively by a single number, often corresponding to an angular position around a central or neutral point or axis on a
color space
A color space is a specific organization of colors. In combination with color profiling supported by various physical devices, it supports reproducible representations of colorwhether such representation entails an analog or a digital represent ...
coordinate diagram (such as a
chromaticity diagram
Chromaticity is an objective specification of the quality of a color regardless of its luminance. Chromaticity consists of two independent parameters, often specified as hue (h) and colorfulness (s), where the latter is alternatively called s ...
) or
color wheel
A color wheel or color circle is an abstract illustrative organization of color hues around a circle, which shows the relationships between primary colors, secondary colors, tertiary colors etc.
Some sources use the terms ''color wheel'' & ' ...
, or by its
dominant wavelength
In color science, the dominant wavelength is a method of characterizing a color's hue. Along with purity, it makes up one half of the Helmholtz coordinates. A color's dominant wavelength is the wavelength of monochromatic spectral light that evok ...
or by that of its
complementary color
Complementary colors are pairs of colors which, when combined or mixed, cancel each other out (lose hue) by producing a grayscale color like white or black. When placed next to each other, they create the strongest contrast for those two co ...
. The other color appearance parameters are
colorfulness
Colorfulness, chroma and saturation are attributes of perceived color relating to chromatic intensity. As defined formally by the International Commission on Illumination (CIE) they respectively describe three different aspects of chromatic ...
,
saturation (also known as intensity or chroma),
lightness
Lightness is a visual perception of the luminance (L) of an object. It is often judged relative to a similarly lit object. In colorimetry and color appearance models, lightness is a prediction of how an illuminated color will appear to a stan ...
, and
brightness
Brightness is an attribute of visual perception in which a source appears to be radiating or reflecting light. In other words, brightness is the perception elicited by the luminance of a visual target. The perception is not linear to luminance, ...
. Usually, colors with the same hue are distinguished with adjectives referring to their lightness or colorfulness - for example: "light blue", "
pastel
A pastel () is an art medium in a variety of forms including a stick, a square a pebble or a pan of color; though other forms are possible; they consist of powdered pigment and a binder. The pigments used in pastels are similar to those use ...
blue", "vivid blue", "cobalt blue". Exceptions include
brown
Brown is a color. It can be considered a composite color, but it is mainly a darker shade of orange. In the CMYK color model used in printing or painting, brown is usually made by combining the colors orange and black. In the RGB color model used ...
, which is a dark
orange
Orange most often refers to:
*Orange (fruit), the fruit of the tree species '' Citrus'' × ''sinensis''
** Orange blossom, its fragrant flower
*Orange (colour), from the color of an orange, occurs between red and yellow in the visible spectrum
* ...
.
[C J Bartleson, "Brown". ''Color Research and Application'', 1 : 4, pp. 181–191 (1976).]
In
painting
Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called the "matrix" or "support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush, but other implements, such as knives, sponges, and ...
, a hue is a ''pure''
pigment
A pigment is a colored material that is completely or nearly insoluble in water. In contrast, dyes are typically soluble, at least at some stage in their use. Generally dyes are often organic compounds whereas pigments are often inorganic compo ...
—one without
tint or shade (added white or black pigment, respectively).
The
human brain
The human brain is the central organ of the human nervous system, and with the spinal cord makes up the central nervous system. The brain consists of the cerebrum, the brainstem and the cerebellum. It controls most of the activities of the ...
first processes hues in areas in the extended
V4 called
globs.
[
]
Deriving a hue
The concept of a color system with a hue was explored as early as 1830 with
Philipp Otto Runge
Philipp Otto Runge (; 1777–1810) was a German artist, a draftsman, painter, and color theorist. Runge and Caspar David Friedrich are often regarded as the leading painters of the German Romantic movement.Koerner, Joseph Leo. 1990. ''Caspar Dav ...
's color sphere. The
Munsell color system
In colorimetry, the Munsell color system is a color space that specifies colors based on three properties of color: hue (basic color), chroma (color intensity), and value ( lightness). It was created by Professor Albert H. Munsell in the first ...
from the 1930s was a great step forward, as it was realized that
perceptual uniformity
In color science, color difference or color distance is the separation between two colors. This metric allows quantified examination of a notion that formerly could only be described with adjectives. Quantification of these properties is of great ...
means the color space can no longer be a sphere.
As a convention, the hue for
red
Red is the color at the long wavelength end of the visible spectrum of light, next to orange and opposite violet. It has a dominant wavelength of approximately 625–740 nanometres. It is a primary color in the RGB color model and a secondar ...
is set to 0° for most color spaces with a hue.
Opponent color spaces
In
opponent color spaces in which two of the axes are perceptually orthogonal to lightness, such as the CIE 1976 (''L''*, ''a''*, ''b''*) (
CIELAB
The CIELAB color space, also referred to as ''L*a*b*'' , is a color space defined by the International Commission on Illumination (abbreviated CIE) in 1976. (Referring to CIELAB as "Lab" without asterisks should be avoided to prevent confusion ...
) and 1976 (''L''*, ''u''*, ''v''*) (
CIELUV
In colorimetry, the CIE 1976 ''L''*, ''u''*, ''v''* color space, commonly known by its abbreviation CIELUV, is a color space adopted by the International Commission on Illumination (CIE) in 1976, as a simple-to-compute transformation of the 1931 CI ...
) color spaces, hue may be computed together with chroma by converting these coordinates from
rectangular
In Euclidean geometry, Euclidean plane geometry, a rectangle is a quadrilateral with four right angles. It can also be defined as: an equiangular quadrilateral, since equiangular means that all of its angles are equal (360°/4 = 90°); or a par ...
form to
polar
Polar may refer to:
Geography
Polar may refer to:
* Geographical pole, either of two fixed points on the surface of a rotating body or planet, at 90 degrees from the equator, based on the axis around which a body rotates
* Polar climate, the c ...
form. Hue is the angular component of the polar representation, while chroma is the radial component.
Specifically, in CIELAB
[''Colorimetry,'' second edition: CIE Publication 15.2. Vienna: Bureau Central of the CIE, 1986.]
:
while, analogously, in CIELUV
:
where,
atan2
In computing and mathematics, the function atan2 is the 2-argument arctangent. By definition, \theta = \operatorname(y, x) is the angle measure (in radians, with -\pi < \theta \leq \pi) between the positive is a two-argument inverse tangent.
Defining hue in terms of RGB
Preucil
[Frank Preucil, "Color Hue and Ink Transfer … Their Relation to Perfect Reproduction, ''TAGA Proceedings,'' p 102-110 (1953).] describes a color hexagon, similar to a trilinear plot described by Evans, Hanson, and Brewer,
[Ralph Merrill Evans, W T Hanson, and W Lyle Brewer, ''Principles of Color Photography.'' New York: Wiley, 1953] which may be used to compute hue from
RGB
The RGB color model is an additive color model in which the red, green and blue primary colors of light are added together in various ways to reproduce a broad array of colors. The name of the model comes from the initials of the three addi ...
. To place
red
Red is the color at the long wavelength end of the visible spectrum of light, next to orange and opposite violet. It has a dominant wavelength of approximately 625–740 nanometres. It is a primary color in the RGB color model and a secondar ...
at 0°,
green
Green is the color between cyan and yellow on the visible spectrum. It is evoked by light which has a dominant wavelength of roughly 495570 Nanometre, nm. In subtractive color systems, used in painting and color printing, it is created by ...
at 120°, and
blue
Blue is one of the three primary colours in the RYB colour model (traditional colour theory), as well as in the RGB (additive) colour model. It lies between violet and cyan on the spectrum of visible light. The eye perceives blue when obs ...
at 240°,
:
Equivalently, one may solve
:
Preucil used a polar plot, which he termed a color circle.
Using R, G, and B, one may compute hue angle using the following scheme: determine which of the six possible orderings of R, G, and B prevail, then apply the formula given in the table below.
Note that in each case the formula contains the fraction
, where ''H'' is the highest of R, G, and B; ''L'' is the lowest, and ''M'' is the mid one between the other two. This is referred to as the "Preucil hue error" and was used in the computation of mask strength in photomechanical color reproduction.
[Miles Southworth, ''Color Separation Techniques'', second edition. Livonia, New York: Graphic Arts Publishing, 1979.]
Hue angles computed for the Preucil circle agree with the hue angle computed for the Preucil hexagon at integer multiples of 30° (red, yellow, green, cyan, blue, magenta, and the colors midway between contiguous pairs) and differ by approximately 1.2° at odd integer multiples of 15° (based on the circle formula), the maximal divergence between the two.
The process of converting an RGB color into an
HSL color space
HSL (for hue, saturation, lightness) and HSV (for hue, saturation, value; also known as HSB, for hue, saturation, brightness) are alternative representations of the RGB color model, RGB color model, designed in the 1970s by computer graphics res ...
or
HSV color space
HSL (for hue, saturation, lightness) and HSV (for hue, saturation, value; also known as HSB, for hue, saturation, brightness) are alternative representations of the RGB color model, designed in the 1970s by computer graphics researchers to more ...
is usually based on a 6-piece piecewise mapping, treating the HSV cone as a hexacone, or the HSL double cone as a double hexacone.
The formulae used are those in the table above.
24 hues of HSL/HSV
The hue angles below only apply to the two Preucil-style transformations of RGB, and does not apply to the more uniform Lab/LUV-based colorspaces. As illustrated by the variance in luminance, the RGB-based transformations separate the color-making attributes poorly.
Usage in art
Manufacturers of pigments use the word hue, for example, "cadmium yellow (hue)" to indicate that the original pigmentation ingredient, often toxic, has been replaced by safer (or cheaper) alternatives whilst retaining the hue of the original. Replacements are often used for
chromium
Chromium is a chemical element with the symbol Cr and atomic number 24. It is the first element in group 6. It is a steely-grey, lustrous, hard, and brittle transition metal.
Chromium metal is valued for its high corrosion resistance and hardne ...
,
cadmium
Cadmium is a chemical element with the symbol Cd and atomic number 48. This soft, silvery-white metal is chemically similar to the two other stable metals in group 12, zinc and mercury. Like zinc, it demonstrates oxidation state +2 in most of ...
and
alizarin
Alizarin (also known as 1,2-dihydroxyanthraquinone, Mordant Red 11, C.I. 58000, and Turkey Red) is an organic compound with formula that has been used throughout history as a prominent red dye, principally for dyeing textile fabrics. Histori ...
.
Hue vs. dominant wavelength
Dominant wavelength
In color science, the dominant wavelength is a method of characterizing a color's hue. Along with purity, it makes up one half of the Helmholtz coordinates. A color's dominant wavelength is the wavelength of monochromatic spectral light that evok ...
(or sometimes equivalent wavelength) is a physical analog to the perceptual attribute hue. On a
chromaticity diagram
Chromaticity is an objective specification of the quality of a color regardless of its luminance. Chromaticity consists of two independent parameters, often specified as hue (h) and colorfulness (s), where the latter is alternatively called s ...
, a line is drawn from a
white point
A white point (often referred to as reference white or target white in technical documents) is a set of tristimulus values or chromaticity coordinates that serve to define the color "white" in image capture, encoding, or reproduction. Depending on ...
through the coordinates of the color in question, until it intersects the
spectral locus
A spectral color is a color that is evoked by ''monochromatic light'', i.e. either a single wavelength of light in the visible spectrum, or by a relatively narrow band of wavelengths (e.g. lasers). Every wavelength of visible light is percei ...
. The wavelength at which the line intersects the spectrum locus is identified as the color's
dominant wavelength
In color science, the dominant wavelength is a method of characterizing a color's hue. Along with purity, it makes up one half of the Helmholtz coordinates. A color's dominant wavelength is the wavelength of monochromatic spectral light that evok ...
if the point is on the same side of the white point as the spectral locus, and as the color's
complementary wavelength
In color science, the dominant wavelength is a method of characterizing a color's hue. Along with purity, it makes up one half of the Helmholtz coordinates. A color's dominant wavelength is the wavelength of monochromatic spectral light that evok ...
if the point is on the opposite side.
[Deane B Judd and Günter Wyszecki, ''Color in Business, Science, and Industry.'' New York: Wiley, 1976.]
Hue difference notation
There are two main ways in which hue difference is quantified. The first is the simple difference between the two hue angles. The symbol for this expression of hue difference is
in CIELAB and
in CIELUV. The other is computed as the residual total color difference after Lightness and Chroma differences have been accounted for; its symbol is
in CIELAB and
in CIELUV.
Names and other notations
There exists some correspondence, more or less precise, between hue values and
color term
A color term (or color name) is a word or phrase that refers to a specific color. The color term may refer to human perception of that color (which is affected by visual context) which is usually defined according to the Munsell color system, or t ...
s (names). One approach in color science is to use traditional color terms but try to give them more precise definitions. See
spectral color#Table of spectral or near-spectral colors for names of highly saturated colors with the hue from ≈ 0° (red) up to ≈ 275° (violet), and
line of purples#Table of highly-saturated purple colors for color terms of the remaining part of the color wheel.
Alternative approach is to use a systematic notation. It can be a standard
angle
In Euclidean geometry, an angle is the figure formed by two Ray (geometry), rays, called the ''Side (plane geometry), sides'' of the angle, sharing a common endpoint, called the ''vertex (geometry), vertex'' of the angle.
Angles formed by two ...
notation for certain color model such as HSL/HSV mentioned above,
CIELUV
In colorimetry, the CIE 1976 ''L''*, ''u''*, ''v''* color space, commonly known by its abbreviation CIELUV, is a color space adopted by the International Commission on Illumination (CIE) in 1976, as a simple-to-compute transformation of the 1931 CI ...
, or
CIECAM02
In colorimetry, CIECAM02 is the color appearance model published in 2002 by the International Commission on Illumination (CIE) Technical Committee 8-01 (''Color Appearance Modelling for Color Management Systems'') and the successor of CIECAM97s. ...
. Alphanumeric notations such as of
Munsell color system
In colorimetry, the Munsell color system is a color space that specifies colors based on three properties of color: hue (basic color), chroma (color intensity), and value ( lightness). It was created by Professor Albert H. Munsell in the first ...
,
NCS
NCS may refer to:
Biology and chemistry
* N-Chlorosuccinimide, an organic chemical
* Neotenic complex syndrome
* Nerve conduction study, a medical diagnostic test
* Neuronal calcium sensor, a family of proteins
* Thiocyanate, an organic compoun ...
, and
Pantone Matching System
Pantone LLC (stylized as PANTONE) is a limited liability company headquartered in Carlstadt, New Jersey. The company is best known for its Pantone Matching System (PMS), a proprietary color space used in a variety of industries, notably graphic ...
are also used.
See also
*
Lightness (color)
Lightness is a visual perception of the luminance (L) of an object. It is often judged relative to a similarly lit object. In colorimetry and color appearance models, lightness is a prediction of how an illuminated color will appear to a stand ...
*
Chromaticity
Chromaticity is an objective specification of the quality of a color regardless of its luminance. Chromaticity consists of two independent parameters, often specified as hue (h) and colorfulness (s), where the latter is alternatively called ...
*
Munsell color system
In colorimetry, the Munsell color system is a color space that specifies colors based on three properties of color: hue (basic color), chroma (color intensity), and value ( lightness). It was created by Professor Albert H. Munsell in the first ...
*
Bezold–Brücke shift
The Bezold–Brücke shift or luminance-on-hue effect is a change in hue perception as light intensity changes. As intensity increases, spectral colors shift more towards blue (if below 500 nm) or yellow (if above 500 nm). At lower inte ...
References
External links
Editing of hue in photography
{{Authority control
Color