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  [Illustration: A BALANCED COLOR SPHERE
  PASTEL SKETCH]




  A COLOR NOTATION

  _By_

  A. H. MUNSELL

A MEASURED COLOR SYSTEM, BASED ON THE THREE QUALITIES

  _Hue, Value, and Chroma_

  with

  Illustrative Models, Charts, and
  a Course of Study Arranged for Teachers

  _2nd Edition
  Revised &
  Enlarged_

  GEO. H. ELLIS CO.
  BOSTON
  1907




  COPYRIGHT, 1905
  by
  A. H. MUNSELL

  _All rights reserved_

  ENTERED AT STATIONERS' HALL




AUTHOR'S PREFACE.


At various times during the past ten years, the gist of these pages has
been given in the form of lectures to students of the Normal Art School,
the Art Teachers' Association, and the Twentieth Century Club. In
October of last year it was presented before the Society of Arts of the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, at the suggestion of Professor
Charles R. Cross.

Grateful acknowledgment is due to many whose helpful criticism has aided
in its development, notably Mr. Benjamin Ives Gilman, Secretary of the
Museum of Fine Arts, Professor Harry E. Clifford, of the Institute, and
Mr. Myron T. Pritchard, master of the Everett School, Boston.

    A. H. M.

  CHESTNUT HILL, MASS., 1905.




PREFACE TO SECOND EDITION.


The new illustrations in this edition are facsimiles of children's
studies with measured color, made under ordinary school-room conditions.
Notes and appendices are introduced to meet the questions most
frequently asked, stress being laid on the unbalanced nature of colors
usually given to beginners, and the mischief done by teaching that red,
yellow, and blue are primary hues.

The need of a scientific basis for color values is also emphasized,
believing this to be essential in the discipline of the color sense.

    A. H. M.

  CHESTNUT HILL, MASS., 1907.




INTRODUCTION.


The lack of definiteness which is at present so general in color
nomenclature, is due in large measure to the failure to appreciate the
fundamental characteristics on which color differences depend. For the
physicist, the expression of the wave length of any particular light is
in most cases sufficient, but in the great majority of instances where
colors are referred to, something more than this and something easier of
realization is essential.

The attempt to express color relations by using merely two dimensions,
or two definite characteristics, can never lead to a successful system.
For this reason alone the system proposed by Mr. Munsell, with its three
dimensions of hue, value, and chroma, is a decided step in advance over
any previous proposition. By means of these three dimensions it is
possible to completely express any particular color, and to
differentiate it from colors ordinarily classed as of the same
general character.

The expression of the essential characteristics of a color is, however,
not all that is necessary. There must be some accurate and not too
complicated system for duplicating these characteristics, one which
shall not alter with time or place, and which shall be susceptible of
easy and accurate redetermination. From the teaching standpoint also a
logical and sequential development is absolutely essential. This Mr.
Munsell seems to have most successfully accomplished.

In the determination of his relationships he has made use of distinctly
scientific methods, and there seems no reason why his suggestions should
not lead to an exact and definite system of color essentials. The
Munsell photometer, which is briefly referred to, is an instrument of
wide range, high precision, and great sensitiveness, and permits the
valuations which are necessary in his system to be accurately made. We
all appreciate the necessity for some improvement in our ideas of color,
and the natural inference is that the training should be begun in early
youth. The present system in its modified form possesses elements of
simplicity and attractiveness which should appeal to children, and give
them almost unconsciously a power of discrimination which would prove of
immense value in later life. The possibilities in this system are very
great, and it has been a privilege to be allowed during the past few
years to keep in touch with its development. I cannot but feel that we
have here not only a rational color nomenclature, but also a system of
scientific importance and of practical value.

    H. E. CLIFFORD.

  MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY,
    February, 1905.




CONTENTS.


  Introduction By Professor Clifford.


  Part I.

Chapter                                                Paragraph

    I. COLOR NAMES: Red, Yellow, Green, Blue, Purple           1
         Appendix I.--Misnomers for Color.

   II. COLOR QUALITIES: Hue, Value, Chroma                    20
         Appendix II.--Scales of Hue, Value, and Chroma.

  III. COLOR MIXTURE: A Tri-Dimensional Balance               54
         Appendix III.--False Color Balance.

   IV. PRISMATIC COLORS                                       87
         Appendix IV.--Children's Color Studies.

    V. THE PIGMENT COLOR SPHERE: TRUE COLOR BALANCE          102
         Appendix V.--Schemes based on Brewster's Theory.

   VI. COLOR NOTATION: A Written Color System                132

  VII. COLOR HARMONY: A Measured Relation                    146


  Part II.

       A COLOR SYSTEM AND COURSE OF STUDY
       BASED ON THE COLOR SOLID AND ITS CHARTS.
         Arranged for nine years of school life.

       GLOSSARY OF COLOR TERMS.
         Taken from the Century Dictionary.

       INDEX
         (by paragraphs).




CHAPTER I.

COLOR NAMES.


Writing from Samoa to Sidney Colvin in London, Stevenson[1] says:
"Perhaps in the same way it might amuse you to send us any pattern of
wall paper that might strike you as cheap, pretty, and suitable for a
room in a hot and extremely bright climate. It should be borne in mind
that our climate can be extremely dark, too. Our sitting-room is to be
in varnished wood. The room I have particularly in mind is a sort of bed
and sitting room, pretty large, lit on three sides, and the colour in
favour of its proprietor at present is a topazy yellow. But then with
what colour to relieve it? For a little work-room of my own at the back
I should rather like to see some patterns of unglossy--well, I'll be
hanged if I can describe this red. It's not Turkish, and it's not Roman,
and it's not Indian; but it seems to partake of the last two, and yet it
can't be either of them, because it ought to be able to go with
vermilion. Ah, what a tangled web we weave! Anyway, with what brains you
have left choose me and send me some--many--patterns of the exact
shade."

    [Footnote 1: Vailima Letters, Oct. 8, 1902.]

(1) Where could be found a more delightful cry for some rational way to
describe color? He wants "a topazy yellow" and a red that is not Turkish
nor Roman nor Indian, but that "seems to partake of the last two, and
yet it can't be either of them." As a cap to the climax comes his demand
for "patterns of the exact shade." Thus one of the clearest and most
forceful writers of English finds himself unable to describe the color
he wants. And why? Simply because popular language does not clearly
state a single one of the three qualities united in every color, and
which must be known before one may even hope to convey his color
conceptions to another.

(2) The incongruous and bizarre nature of our present color names must
appear to any thoughtful person. Baby blue, peacock blue, Nile green,
apple green, lemon yellow, straw yellow, rose pink, heliotrope, royal
purple, Magenta, Solferino, plum, and automobile are popular terms,
conveying different ideas to different persons and utterly failing