Color Order Systems

By

Beyene D.
 INTRODUCTION

• Color order system is a logical framework that allows the interrelationships of colours to be

unambiguously expressed.

• A colour order system is any systematic and rational method of arranging all possible

colours or subsets by means of material samples selected so that they represent all object

colours.

• This allows the communication of colour precepts over distance and through time, even

where physical specimens do not exist or have changed in colour with age.
 Cont’d

• ISO/TC187 (Colour Notations), has defined a colour-order system as a set of principles for

the ordering and denotation of colours, usually according to defined scales

• Colour-order system is a set of principles that defines:

A. an arrangement of colours according to attributes such that the more similar their attributes,

the closer are the colours located in the arrangement, and

B. a method of denoting the locations in the arrangement, and hence of the colours at these

locations.
 CONT’D

• Six of the most popular systems are of this type. These are:
1. Munsell system

2. The optical society of america uniform colour scales

3. (OSA-UCS system)

4. Natural colour system (NCS)

5. Ostwald system

6. DIN colour system

7. Coloroid system.
 CONT’D

• A few less well-known and/or newly developed colour order systems also
exist.

• These include:-
• The swiss colour Atlas 2541,

• The chevreul system,

• Color curve,

• The Euro colour system,

• The acoat system and the pope colour System

 THE MUNSELL SYSTEM

• In 1905 albert munsell invented a complete colour description system.

• The notation was first developed by munsell in l905 and the Atlas released in 1915 and
commercialised in 1929.
 CONT’D

• The munsell system is based on steps of equal visual perception.

• It describes all perceivable colours in terms of three coordinates –

• Munsell hue (H),

• Munsell value (V) and

• Munsell chroma (C).

• Munsell hue is on an interval scale (i.e. Equal numerical interval indicates equal
perceived difference of attribute), whereas munsell value and munsell chroma are ratio
scales (i.e. An interval scale having natural origin).
Munsell colour order system.
 CONT’D

• Hues are represented along the circumference of a circle.

• The circle is divided into the five principal hues, Red (5R), Yellow (5Y), Green (5G), Blue

(5B) and Purple (5P)

• Along with five intermediate hues (5YR, 5GY, 5BG, 5PB, 5RP) halfway between adjacent

principal hues.

• Each of these portions is again subdivided into 10 divisions to give a total of 100 hues.

• Hue can also be expressed in continuous scale numbered from 1 to 100.

• Value indicates the lightness of colour.

• The scale of value ranges from 0 for pure black

to 10 for pure white.

• Black, white and the grays between them are

called “neutral colours”.

• They have no hue.

• Colours that have a hue are called “chromatic

colour”
 Munsell Notation

• Munsell value can be represented vertically along the axis of the circle and is divided into

10 equal steps.

• Chroma is represented by the distance from the centre (Chroma = 0) to a maximum of 17.

• The complete Munsell specification of a sample is expressed as H V/C (e.g. 5R 4/8).

• The munsell system has problems evaluating near neutral samples.

 Cont’d

• The complete munsell notation for a chromatic colour is written: HV/C.

• For a vivid red having a hue of 5R, a value of 6 and chroma of 14, the complete notation is
5R 6/14.

• When a finer division is needed for any of the attributes, decimals are used.

e.g. 5.3R 6.1/14.4

• When hue of the primary hue circle are used, the notations is written in the same way, for
example 2B’ 5/4
 Cont’d

• The notation for neutral color is written: NV

• The chroma of neutral color is zero, but it is customary to omit the zero in the

notation.

• The notation N1/ denotes a black, a very dark neutral, while N 9/ denotes a white, a

very light neutral.

• This notation for a middle gray is N 5/.

• The goal of the munsell system is to present an arrangement of a full sample of colors in equal perceptual
intervals over the three dimensions of the color space.
 CONT’D

• The colour sensations as well as visual spacing of the Munsell samples vary when the

source of illumination is changed.

• The munsell colour system is, therefore, Meaningful only as a colour sensation system to

be viewed under specific illumination.

 CONT’D
• The munsell value scale (V) is related to the CIE luminance factor (Y) by the following complex, fifth
degree Polynomial equation (judds polynomial) based on the use of magnesium oxide, assigned a value of
absolute reflectance of 1.026 for 45/0o illumination and viewing.

Y = 1.2219V - 0.23111V2 + 0.23951V3 - 0.021009v4 + 0.0008404V5

• Ladd and Pinney [31] proposed the following simpler equation:

V = 2.468Y1/3 - 1.636

The most common metric used to measure the brightness of materials is CIE Y Brightness
or Luminance.
The CIE Y metric is scaled between 0 (representing a Perfect Black of 0% reflectance across
 THENBS/ISCC
THE NBS/ISCCCOLOR
COLORSYSTEM
SYSTEM

(Inter-Society Color Council-National Bureau of Standards)

 INTRODUCTION
INTRODUCTION
• He ISCC–NBS system of color designation is a system for naming Colors based on a
set of 12 basic color terms and a small set of adjective modifiers.

• It was first established in the 1930s by a joint effort of the inter-society color council,
made up of delegates from various American trade organizations, and the 
national bureau of standards, a US government agency.

• After the definition of the munsell system was slightly altered by its 1943 renotations,
the ISCC–NBS system was redefined in the 1950s in relation to the new Munsell
coordinates.
ISCC-NBS system
 CONT’D

• The method adopted is simple in principle.

• The terms light, medium, and dark designate decreasing degrees of lightness, the adverb
"very" is added to extend the lightness scale to 'very light" and "very dark."

• The adjectives weak, medium, strong, vivid, designate increasing degrees of saturation.

• The color designations of the ISCC-NBS system define a block in the surface-color solid.

• The complete system provides for 312 such blocks, a number quite sufficient for many
purposes, although it means that each block contains many distinguishable colors.
EXAMPLES
NATURAL COLOUR SYSTEM (NCS)
 INTRODUCTION

• The natural colour system (NCS) was developed in sweden (hard and sivik, 1981).

• It is the national standard of Sweden, Norway, Spain and South Africa.

• It is recognized and used in all European and many other countries.

• The system is based on six primary colours suggested by Leonardo da Vinci.

• In 1995 a revision was made, to improve the accuracy of the samples and to exclude
pigment containing harmful lead and cadmium, and the number of samples was raised to
1750
 CONT’D

• In this system, six elementary colours, namely

• white (W), black (S), yellow (Y), red (R), blue (B) and green (G), are perceived as pure
colours and cannot be described as other than themselves.

• All other colours can be described on the basis of their resemblance to these six
elementary colours.

• The colour names in capital letters indicate pure or full colour and the colour names in
small letter indicate the colour-content.
• The three fundamental variables used by NCS are:
Hue,
Blackness and
Chromaticness

The NCS colour triangle is a radial

plane, normal to the hue circle,
which shows samples with the
same hue.

 Constant hue triangle with three corners, namely white (W), black (S) and pure
chromatic colour (C), the distance of the location of the test colour from the corners
indicating the whiteness, blackness and chromatic content, respectively.
 CONT’D

• NCS hue, ϕ , is defi ned as degree of resemblance of the test colour to the nearest

two chromatic elementary colours.

• Y80R indicates 80% resemblance to red and 20% to yellow.

• The sequence of NCS hues is similar to the CIELAB arrangement and opposite to the

Munsell system. The clockwise hue circle sequence is Y → R→ B → G.

• It follows that Y50R is an NCS hue code, but R50Y is not.

 CONT’D
• NCS chromaticness , c , is the resemblance of the test colour to the colour of the same hue having
maximum possible chromatic content.
• It can also be Defined as the sum of the chromatic elementary attributes (redness, yellowness,
greenness and blueness) of a colour:
C= y+r+b+g
CONT’D