# A Color Notation

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PLATE I
A BALANCED COLOR SPHERE
PASTEL SKETCH
A COLOR NOTATION
BY
A. H. MUNSELL
AN ILLUSTRATED SYSTEM DEFINING ALL COLORS AND THEIR RELATIONS BY MEASURED SCALES OF
Hue, Value, and Chroma
MADE IN SOLID PAINT FOR THE ACCOMPANYING
Color Atlas
INTRODUCTION BY H. E. CLIFFORD
Fifth Edition. Revised and Enlarged.
MUNSELL COLOR COMPANY NEW YORK
1919
Copyright, 1905, 1913 by A. H. Munsell
All rights reserved
Entered at Stationers’ Hall
PRESS OF GEO. H. ELLIS CO., BOSTON
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
An Atlas of Pigment Color, long delayed by the difficulty of exact reproduction, accompanies this edition. Its measured scales of hue, value, and chroma, tested by appropriate instruments such as a daylight photometer, spectroscope, and Maxwell discs, serve to collect many imdividual records and establish a norm, or average, of color discrimination. These charts, three of ​which are simplified in a new folded plate (V.), may do much to dispel the mental fog and personal bias that so hamper color education.
Brewster’s mistaken theory of color was rejected half a century ago, but it still lingers in the school-room, giving children a false start with Froebel balls and a three-color box. This leads to crude excesses with red, yellow, and blue, which ignore the teaching of both Art and Nature, and contradict the verdict of the eye, whose sensitive balance is the test of color beauty. Efforts at picture-making, with all the complications of linear and aërial perspective, call for aptitudes rarely found in pupil or teacher and of little use in daily life, but a fine color sense of great educational value may be trained by decorative studies whose simple color relations permit the student to realize in what way and by how much he falls short of a definite standard.
Plates II. and III. reproduce children’s studies with measured intervals of color-light and color-strength, which so discipline their feeling for color balance that they may then be trusted to use even the strongest pigments with discretion.
A new full-page plate of the Color Tree, with descriptive text, will be found in the appendix to Chapter II. It is also a pleasure to acknowledge the aid of many experienced teachers, especially Miss Mary L. Patrick, of Wellesley, Miss Margaret E. Hill, of Winchester, Miss Florence E. Locke, and Miss Alice Frye, of Somerville, who have helped in the preparation of a simple introduction to this system, separately published under the title "Color Balance Illustrated."
A. H. M.
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.
Gordon McKay Professor of Electrical Enginneering, Harvard University.
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Illustrative Material for the Munsell Color System
Color Atlas
¶The Atlas is composed of charts whose measured scales of hue, value, and chroma are made in solid pigment colors, tested and chosen for permanence. The scales are stand- ardized by five basic colors preserved in vitreous enamel and recorded in terms of wave-length and degree of white light.
¶The charts bear appropriate symbols on each step of their measured scales, so that any color or group of colors may be recorded and reproduced at will. Such records are valuable, not only in the study of color harmony, but also as a necessary means of reference in scientific and industrial lines, and are used in many schools, colleges, and laboratories. (See appendix to Chapter II.)
Model of The Color Sphere
¶This rotating sphere demonstrates the balance of color. It gives the child not only a clear mental grasp of measured relations, but also prepares the way for noting and preserv- ing a record of such combinations as give harmony or discord. ;
Model of The Color Tree
¶This tangible image of color relations worked out from the scales of the Atlas is a great aid to color study, serving to locate and name a color, as the school globe locates and names a place. Those to whom color has remained somewhat of a mystery may gain from this model a clear understanding of color qualities and quantities.
​The Munsell Photometer
¶A portable and convenient form of daylight instrument for the measurement of color light, whether radiant, reflected, or transmitted, and calibrated to a complete range of values from white to black, illustrating the Weber-Fechner law of sensation. It is described on page 39 of this book and in the New Century Dictionary under photometer (daylight).
¶This supplies a Scientific Basis for the system of color here outlined, and serves for both physical and psychological tests of vision; also for establishing the illumination value at any point in a room. It is in use in many laboratories, as those of Clark, Columbia, Harvard, the University of Washington, the Treasury Department, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and private establishments.
¶Materials and supplies based on the Munsell Color System, including oil colors, water colors, crayons, colored papers, balls, cards, etc., may be obtained from
MUNSELL COLOR COMPANY 220 West 42d Street New York
This work is in the public domain in the United States because it was published before January 1, 1929.
This work may be in the public domain in countries and areas with longer native copyright terms that apply the rule of the shorter term to foreign works.
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