Color is a fascinating subject, touching on physics, physiology, psychology,
art, and philosopy. Here I am keeping some notes and references on color.
“Unique colors” based on the opponent-process model of human color vision
from an article by Kuehni. The colors shown are
approximations in the sRGB color space to the Munsell values 5R5/14, 5G6/8,
5Y8/10, 5PB5/12, N9, and N1. The background is N5. Approximate sRGB values are
from Werth's
Virtual Munsell Color Wheel.
color vision
by Bruce MacEvoy. His handprint.com
website has many interesting things, including a section on watercolors.
Opticks
by Sir Isaac Newton. From Project Gutenberg.
Cochrane, S. (2014). The Munsell Color System: A scientific compromise from the world of art. Studies in History and Philosophy of Science,
47, 26-41.
(Full-text available via Cornette Library.)
Kuehni, R. (2014). Unique hues and their stimuli—state of the art.
Color Research & Application, 39(3), 279-287.
(Full-text available via Cornette Library.)
Modern Chromatics by Ogden Rood (1879). Modern printed facsimile
in the Cornette Library at ND 1488.R66 1879a.
A Color Notation (ebook, public domain, 1905) by Albert Henry Munsell.
There is a print copy of the 1919 Third edition in the Cornette Library at ND
1488.M9 1919.
A Grammar of Color
Munsell and Cleland, 1921, online version at The
Munsell Color Company. Cornette Library also has a reprint of this, but with
fewer color pages.
Landa, E. R. (2004). ALBERT H. MUNSELL: A SENSE OF COLOR AT THE INTERFACE OF ART AND SCIENCE. Soil Science, 169(2), 83-89.
(Full-text available via Cornette Library.)
Lch and Lab colour gradient picker by David Johnstone. The Lch (CIELCH)
color system has a chroma scale and a lightness scale similar to
Munsell's value scale, but is based on
RYGB hues 90° apart in a cylindrical color space.
Some random human skin colors. These cover the range of Munsell colors: Hue: 2.5-7.5 YR,
Value: 2-7, Chroma 2-4. A high-chroma shade of YR is called “orange” in modern English.
Appearance will vary with your monitor's color balance.