Munsell
Colour
The Universal Language
Back
to Introduction
Next Page
Hue
Hue is that attribute of a colour by which we
distinguish red from green, blue from yellow, etc. There
is a natural order of hues: red, yellow, green, blue,
purple. One can mix paints of adjacent colours in this
series to obtain a continuous variation from one colour
to the other. For example, red and yellow may be mixed
in any proportion to obtain all the hues from red through
orange to yellow. The same may be said of yellow and green,
green and blue, blue and purple, and purple and red.
|
 |
This
series returns to the starting point, so it can be arranged
in a circle. Munsell called red, yellow, green, blue, and
purple ''principal hues " and placed them at equal
intervals around this circle. He inserted five intermediate
hues: yellow-red, green-yellow, blue-green, purple-blue
and red-purple, making ten hues in all. For simplicity,
he used the initials as symbols to designate the ten hue
sectors: R, YR., Y, GY, G, BG, B, PB, P and RP. The hue
circle is illustrated in Figure 1.
(Left) Figure 1. |
Munsell
arbitrarily divided the hue circle in to 100 steps of equal
visual change in hue, with the zero point at the beginning
of the red sector, as shown in Figure 2. |
Hue
may be identified by a number from 0 to 100, as shown
in the outer circle. This may be useful for statistical
records, cataloguing and computer programming. However,
the meaning is more obvious when hue is identified by
the hue sector and a step based on a scale of ten, within
that sector: For example, the hue in the middle of the
red sector is called "five red," and is written
"5R" (The zero step is not used, so there is
a I OR hue, but no 0 YR.) This method of identifying hue
is shown on the inner circle.
(Right)
Figure 2.
|
|
Back
to Introduction
Next Page
|
Areas
of Knowledge
Options