Color communication

Abstract

The use of language to describe color is natural and intuitive and there seems to be some evidence that different languages refer to color in a consistent way. It is clear, nonetheless, that the reliance of language to communicate color is limited not least by the number of color names but also by the lack of precision that language affords. As an alternative to natural language, color-order systems have found widespread use; these usually consist of physical books of patches or swatches each of which carries a notation. Three representatives of such systems are referred to in this chapter: The Munsell system, the Pantone system, and the NCS system. Although physical-color order systems can be effective they are also limited by, for example, consisting of relatively few physical samples. The last couple of decades have seen increased use of numerical color communication and specification based upon the CIE system.