Part 9 (1/2)

(127) Such a set of charts forms an atlas of the color solid, enabling one to see any color in its relation to all other colors, and name it by its degree of hue, value, and chroma. Fig. 20 is a horizontal chart of all colors which present middle value (5), and describes by an uneven contour the chroma of every hue at this level. The dotted fifth circle is the equator of the color sphere, whose princ.i.p.al hues, R 5/5. Y 5/5, G 5/5, B 5/5, and P 5/5, form the chromatic tuning fork, paragraph 117.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 20.

Chart of Middle Value - 5 - Showing Unequal Chroma in circle of Hues. (See Fig. 2).]

(128) In this single chart the eye readily distinguishes some three hundred different colors, each of which may be written by its hue, value, and chroma. And even the slightest variation of one of them can be defined. Thus, if the princ.i.p.al red were to fade slightly, so that it was a trifle lighter and a trifle weaker than the enamel, it would be written R{5.1/4.9}, showing it had lightened by 1 per cent. and weakened by 1 per cent. The discrimination made possible by this decimal notation is much finer than our present visual limit. Its use will stimulate finer perception of color.

(129) Such a very elementary sketch of the Color Solid and Color Atlas, which is all that can be given in the confines of this small book, will be elsewhere presented on a larger and more complete scale. It should be contrasted with the ideal form composed of prismatic colors, suggested in the last chapter, paragraphs 98, 99, which was shown to be impracticable, but whose ideal conditions it follows as far as the limitations of pigments permit.

(130) Besides its value in education as setting all our color notions in order, and supplying a simple method for their clear expression, it promises to do away with much of the misunderstanding that accompanies the every-day use of color.

(131) Popular color names are incongruous, irrational, and often ludicrous. One must smile in reading the list of 25 steps in a scale of blue, made by Schiffer-Muller in 1772:--

A. _a._ White pure.

_b._ White silvery or pearly.

_c._ White milky.

B. _a._ Bluish white.

_b._ Pearly white.

_c._ Watery white.

C. Blue being born.

D. Blue dying or pale.

E. Mignon blue.

F. Celestial blue, or sky-color.

G. _a._ Azure, or ultramarine.

_b._ Complete or perfect blue.

_c._ Fine or queen blue.

H. Covert blue or turquoise.

I. King blue (deep).

J. Light brown blue or indigo.

K. _a._ Persian blue or woad flower.

_b._ Forge or steel blue.

_c._ Livid blue.

L. _a._ Blackish blue.

_b._ h.e.l.lish blue.

_c._ Black-blue.

M. _a._ Blue-black or charcoal.

_b._ Velvet black.