Chapter 3Visual Color Specification
At this point, we invite the reader to approach the subject of color with us from an entirely different point of view. Rather than describing the physics of materials and light, or the physiology of the eye, we want to provide a vocabulary for describing color as we see it. We seek nouns and adjectives that have universal meaning and whose meanings are intuitive. Color names such as orange and gray conjure up reasonably consistent perceptions. In fact, 11 basic color names (mono‐lexemic) have been identified (Berlin and Kay 1969; Kay and Regier 2006; Kay et al. 2010): white, gray, black, red, yellow, green, blue, orange, purple, pink, and brown. (See the review by Hardin 1998.) There have also been suggestions for a basic name between green and blue, such as “grue” or “turquoise” (Jameson 2005; Mylonas and MacDonald 2016). However, two samples may both be red, yet differ widely from one another. We need additional descriptions with greater precision within a basic color name. Finally, it is also useful to organize colors to facilitate visual color specification.
A. ONE‐DIMENSIONAL SCALES
Kuehni and Schwarz (2008) have defined three independent psychological attributes that are used to describe colors viewed under a single set of illuminating and viewing conditions: hue, lightness, and chromatic intensity.