The Munsell Color Tree
Colors everywhere, but who can count them all?!
Janice Ahn & Elaine Yau
CS99D – Winter 99/00
Marc Levoy
Historical Problems with Identifying
Colors
• Theoretical Problems
– Numerous color concepts
– Different theorists organize properties of color into
different functional systems
• Leonardo da Vinci (15th Century)
• Newton – discovered spectrum and devised color circle
• J.C. Le Blon – observed primary nature of red, yellow, blue and
described hues from mixing (1756)
• Moses Harris – published first color circle in full color (1766)
Different Color Wheels
• Color wheel 1
Historical Problems with Identifying
Colors
• Practical Problems
– Individual color
vocabulary
• Breadth
• Definitions/associations
– Trade names and
commercial naming
• Behr Paints
Various Color Classifications
Munsell Solves Color Problems!
• Albert H. Munsell
– Seascape painter of the 1890s
– Munsell System of Color Notation (1905)
– One of the color standards used by the US
National Bureau of Standards
– Used in science, industry, and art
• Soil samples
What is the Munsell Color Tree?
• 3D Spherical Model
• Incorporates concepts of
hue, value, and chroma in
one model
• Organized in a numerical
classification system
• Inclusive of all colors –
each color has its own
place
How does it work?
• Based on the 2D Color
Wheel
– Includes primary, secondary
colors, i.e. hues
– Can be expanded to
include intermediary hues
• Shows all variations of
colors/hues, which are at
full intensity on the wheel
• Notation: 5.0 + letter
5.0 R = red
5.0 BG = blue green
How does it work?
• Value Scale
– The lightness/darkness of a particular hue
– Related to brightness, luminosity
– Vertical arrangement: the “trunk” of the
color tree
• Nine levels of values
– 1 = black
– 9 = white
– Notation: 5.0 R 5/ ; 5.0 BG 7/
• Values of hues are compared with this
neutral gray pole
How does it work?
• Chroma
– Refers to
strength/weakness of a
hue at a certain value
– Related to purity,
saturation, intensity
– Horizontal
arrangement: the
branches of the tree
• Fourteen levels of
chromas
– 1 = dullest, most gray
variation of the hue
– 14 = most intense, pure
state of the hue
– Notation: 5.0 R 5/6;
5.0 BG 7/8 (even
numbers)
– 5.0 R 5/12 is redder
than 5.0 R 5/10
Value and Chroma
To sum up…
• Hue – purest form of a color
– 5.0 R; 10.0 YRY
– Leaves of the tree
To sum up…
• Hue – purest form of a color
– 5.0 R; 10.0 YRY
– Leaves of the tree
• Value – placement along the gray scale
– vertical axis (trunk)
– 5.0 R 5/
To sum up…
• Hue – purest form of a color
– 5.0 R; 10.0 YRY
– Leaves of the tree
• Value – placement along the gray scale
– vertical axis (trunk)
– 5.0 R 5/
• Chroma – intensity of a hue
– horizontal axis (branches)
– 5.0 R 5/14 (most intense red)
To sum up…
• Hue – purest form of a color
– 5.0 R; 10.0 YRY
– Leaves of the tree
• Value – placement along the gray scale
– vertical axis (trunk)
– 5.0 R 5/
• Chroma – intensity of a hue
– horizontal axis (branches)
– 5.0 R 5/14 (most intense red) Each hue has it’s own
page on the tree
• Each hue chart also has different # of chips
depending on the chroma possibilities of each hue
at value levels
Making our Munsell Color Tree
Obstacles
• Sorting through vast pool of color chips ~1500 at
Home Depot (we got lost getting there, too)
• Taunts from the Home Depot Staff
• Eyestrain and bodily fatigue from constant visual
comparisons and matching, and fluorescent lighting
• Limited spectrum of Behr color palette
– Resulted in several empty slots
Making our Munsell Color Tree
Choices
• Construction/Display of our Color Tree
– Wanted: 3-dimensional, rotating pages, upright
• Black background to emphasize color
contrasts
• Shortened chroma range on each page
– Eliminated 1 – gray tone
– Eliminated 14 – most hues do not reach this
intensity, only red
Color in Art
Mark Rothko
(1956)
Orange and
Yellow
Rothko (1954)
Red, Orange, Tan,
and Purple
Henri Matisse
(1943-44)
Icarus (Jazz)
Summer (1890)
Thomas Wilmer Dewing
Josef Albers (1966)
White Line Square XIII
Piet Mondrian (1922)
Composition with Blue,
Yellow, Black, and Red
Marc Chagall
(1913)
Paris Through
My Window
The End
If we have time…
And since we have time…
Bibliography
Birren, Faber. Principles of Color. NY: Van Nostrand Reinhold Co., 1969.
Color Matters. http://www.colormatters.com. March 2000.
Color Theory. http://www.busybrushes.com/Classroom/colorelem.html.
March 2000.
Leland, Nita. Exploring Color. OH: North Light Publishers, 1985.
Parramon, Jose M. The Book of Color. NY: Watson-Guptill Publications,
1993.
Sidelinger, Stephen J. Color Manual. New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, Inc.,
1985.
National Gallery of Art. http://www.nga.gov/home.htm. March, 2000.
Artcyclopedia. www.artcyclopedia.com. March, 2000.