T

he Munsell Book of Color is arguably the first

modern color model. It is based on the three

attributes of color: Hue Saturation and Value,

and was developed through careful color measurement.

Conceived by the American artist Albert H. Munsell

(1858-1918), it was described as a color order system in

1905 and published as an atlas of color samples in 1915.

(This was republished in 1929 as

the Munsell Book of Color.) The

Munsell was extensively revised

or “renotated” in the early 1940’s,

when it was adopted as the standard

color reference system in the USA.

Munsell’s system is based on the

2D hue circle.

Hue is the major organizing principal

behind Munsell’s system. Hue was

defined by Munsell as “the quality by

which we distinguish one color from

another.”

He selected five principle colors:

red

yellow

green

blue

purple

and five intermediate colors:

yellow-red

green-yellow

blue-green

purple-blue

red-purple

While the selection of colors in our hue

circle differ from Munsell’s, the same

principals can be applied. Munsell’s sys-

tem was created, in fact, to be infinitely

expandable.

Color Solids

Munsell’s system is described as a color solid or a three dimensional

color model. Many color theorists, scientists and artists have used

three dimensional models in order to explain the dynamics of color.

Three dimensional color solids such as these allow for the primary

aspects of color (hue, value and saturation) to be illustrated in a sin-

gle model rather than a series of unconnected charts.

Munsell originally conceived of

his color system as a sphere.

The qualities of the hues in the

Munsell system are very irregu-

lar, however, and are best de-

scribed visually by a solid such

as the one shown to the right.

This unusual shape has come to

be known as the Munsell color

tree.

Three views of the

Munsell Color Tree

Hue

Hue is the purest form of a color.

Hue is represented here as a ring.

(Think of your hue circle)

Value

Value refers to the light or dark

quality of a color. Value is rep-

resented as a vertical axis with

black at the bottom and white at

the top.

Saturation (Chroma)

Saturation (called Chroma by

Munsell) is the intensity or purity

of a color. saturation is what dis-

tinguishes a pure hue from a gray

shade.

Tone Scale

The Munsell color tree is organized by three

fundamental aspects of color:

VALUE

The backbone of the

Munsell system is a vertical

value dimension, which

represents equal steps of

perceptual contrast from white

to black.

HUE

Every Hue has a relative

value. Some hues are light

in value (like yellow) some

are dark (like blue-violet).
The fully saturated hue is

located in a row next to it’s

relative value.

YELLOW

BLUE VIOLET

Saturation

Saturation is measured horizon-

tally, with the fully saturated col-

or farthest away from the value

axis.
The distance between the hue and

its relative value depends on the

color’s intensity (or saturation).

The goal is to achieve even per-

ceptual steps of saturation from

gray to the fully saturated hue.

The steps of saturation should

perceptually match those of the

value scale. This is tricky since

contrast of value and contrast of

hue are quite different

less saturated

more saturated

The completed hue

chart has the overall

effect of even steps of

contrast in horizontal,

vertical and diagonal

directions.

The steps of value

contrast are even and

the steps of hue contrast

are even.

Hues can have very different

levels of saturation and also

value (think of the value differ-

ence between yellow and blue-

violet.)

As a result, some hue charts can

have very different appearances.

In the Munsell system, reds,

blues, and purples tend to be

stronger, more saturated hues.

Yellows and greens are weaker

and achieve their full satura-

tion closer to the value axis.

Complementary hues

are ar-

ranged across from each other

in the Munsell tree.